Man, 33, gunned down behind the wheel in North York

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Most residents of a North York neighbourhood were headed to sleep Wednesday night when the sounds of speeding cars, gunfire and screams erupted.

It was around 11:30 p.m. and Toronto had its newest homicide on its hands — the 58th of the year.

Shane Shannon Stanford, 33, was found slumped over in the driver’s seat of a silver Acura with its back window blown out that mounted the curb, drove across a lawn and came to rest against a brick home near Regina and Khedive Aves. — northwest of Bathurst St. and Lawrence Ave. W.

Maria Pacheco, who has lived in the corner house for nearly 25 years, described hearing “a big bump” and her house shaking.

She and her husband woke up to investigate and saw the car on her lawn with its front bumper nestled up against her home, then realized the driver had been shot to death.

“I feel sick,” Pacheco said Thursday. “I am going to be sick for the next few days.”

Her daughter, a lawyer who lives down the street, arrived soon after her frightened mother called 911 and comforted her.

Pacheco said her daughter peered into the car just before police arrived “and she screamed and then ran into our house.”

Koby Hazanovsky, who lives across the street from the Pachecos, said he was in his room on the computer when he heard “maybe six or seven shots.”

He ran out onto the balcony and saw his neighbour’s daughter run up to the Acura.

“I put one and one together and figured there had been a shooting,” said Hazanovsky. “She screamed, I said, ‘Are you okay,’ and she said, ‘no.'”

“Police came within five minutes. There definitely was a guy in the car, who was not alive anymore,” he added.

Hazanovsky said police had their flashlights out looking inside the car and others were covering up the shell casings in the middle of the intersection with what looked to be Styrofoam cups.

“This was not a fun experience (to witness) and I have to explain the police handled it really well,” he said, adding officers with guns and rifles drawn searched the neighbourhood.

Hazanovsky pointed out the neighbourhood is boxed in east of Lawrence Heights and there are a lot of one-way streets.

“You have to know your way around in here,” he said.

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Just before noon, a man with his daughters arrived to pick up his SUV that was parked in front of the Pacheco house with its windows still open.

The man said he’d seen what had happened Wednesday night prior to hearing the shots fired.

“I was outside my house and these cars went flying by doing like 80,” said the man, who didn’t want to be identified. “It was a silver Acura and something that looked like a white Infiniti (chasing) it.”

“I heard maybe five shots,” he added.

The man hopped into his SUV, drove to the crime scene and saw the deadly aftermath.

No arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing.

jboland@postmedia.com