'IT'S NOT SAFE': Shock, frustration after man killed in yet another shooting in Toronto

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Toronto Police are investigating the city’s 73rd homicide of the year after a man was found injured by gunfire early Friday in Scarborough.

Officers were called to Kennedy and Ellesmere Rds. around 4:30 a.m. for reports of a shooting.

They found a man outside an Esso gas station in critical condition and medics conducted an emergency run to hospital, where he died.

A shopping plaza on the northwest corner across from the station was sealed off with police tape as the investigation ramped up.

Officers canvassed local businesses looking for possible video of what happened.

Passersby and locals reacted with shock and disgust to yet another shooting death in the city.

Going back to last Friday into Saturday night, this deadly week has claimed six lives and been wracked by 12 shootings.

“It’s pretty sad what’s going on. I was shocked when I got here and I saw the tape and I said, ‘What’s going on,'” Ira Moore said. “It’s pretty crazy. A regular thing now.”

“It’s so crazy. It’s scary,” said university student Sadiya Koovadia. “That’s so scary. I get scared when I walk at night.”

One man — Angelo — asked about a dog that he said was with the victim when he was found collapsed.

There were reports the dog was transported to animal services after sitting for hours at the spot where the man fell.

A frustrated Angelo said, “They should put a really bad punishment. If you get caught, you get punished.

“They’ve been talking for years and years about guns. But they don’t do nothing.”

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Local resident Lori Petersen agrees not enough is being done about guns on the streets.

“It’s not safe. I don’t go out of my house after six,” she said. “When I was younger, it was never like this. It was safer compared to what it is now. And I don’t like it.

“It’s not safe anymore. now the kids are more easily getting into gangs,” Petersen added. “The gangs back then were just the fists.”

As he walked out of his local Caribbean food shop, Moore echoed that concern.

“It’s crazy what’s happening. So often now you hear it. It’s not good for our city,” he said of the wave of gun violence.

slaurie@postmedia.com