Six people are in hospital with serious injuries after a drive-by shooting at a bakery in Toronto’s north end early Wednesday.
Toronto police said a vehicle pulled up to Spence’s Bakery, on Eglinton Avenue near Allen Road at around 2 a.m., and the occupants of the vehicle fired several rounds at customers inside the store.
“A vehicle pulled up and the suspects inside shot multiple rounds into the storefront of the bakery,” Insp. Tim Crone said.
The bakery was open and full of customers at the time of the shooting, police said.
Six people were shot and rushed to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
“This was a very brazen shooting at this hour of the night with no regard whatsoever for any kind of safety,” Crone said. “They shot randomly into a group of people inside the bakery so obviously this was a very serious incident that occurred.”
Three victims have been released from hospital and the other three are expected to be released later today.
The owner of Spence’s Bakery, Loxsley Brissett, was in the kitchen at the time of the incident and said all the victims were outside of the bakery but ran inside when the shooting happened.
“I see everybody rush inside and hear the sound of the bullets, so I get up and run down the stairs and we ran underneath the table,’’ Brissett said.
Harris Francis owns a business in the area and said he heard loud bangs at the time of the shooting.
“People were on the ground, laying down bleeding until the police came, ambulance [came], then everything was okay,” Francis said.
Police said the suspect vehicle is described as a black SUV.
The number of suspects involved is not known, police said, and there is no description of the suspects available.
Police also noted that it was raining heavily at the time of the shooting.
Mayor John Tory spoke about the shooting with CP24 and said the incident seems to be gang-related.
“I’ve spoken to the police chief and he didn’t give me very much information yet because it happened early in the morning but it has all the earmarks, I’m just saying, of something that is again gang-related,’’ Tory said.
“We’re just seeing a continuing problem as we have through the summer with gang activity and the gangs are tied in with gun trafficking, they’re tied into drugs, they’re tied into human trafficking.’’
Road closures are in effect in the area as police investigate.
Anyone with dashcam video or information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
