Man, 29, shot to death, another stabbed in Toronto's west end

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Screams and yelling. Then came the gunfire and the arrival of police.

That’s how neighbours on Silverthorne Ave., in the Old Weston Rd.-St. Clair Ave. W. area, described the mayhem that ensued at 11:45 p.m. Monday.

A 29-year-old man, identified by Toronto Police as Thomas Coish, 29, was shot to death.

Emergency personnel rushed a 58-year-old man — identified by a neighbour as the dead man’s stepfather — to a hospital with serious stab wounds. Police said Tuesday that he was in stable condition.

Officers secured the front of the semi-detached two-storey home where the violence occurred and roped it off with yellow tape anchored to a cruiser on the street.

Rocks were placed over plastic evidence bags on the front steps — and the narrow walkway to the house — revealing blood stains.

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Across the street from the home, Marina Bernardes stood with her mom on their front porch speaking about what they heard and what was picked up by their home video camera.

“Our cameras picked up (the sounds of) gunshots and screaming, and you could kind of see two people running off,” said Bernardes.

“When we came (back) outside, we were really confused because the police weren’t here,” she added.  “And we were only outside maybe five minutes before it all happened with my friends.”

She explained they saw two people arrive at the home, who were confronted by the stepfather outside the house.

“It started off as an argument, and then it went inside the house,” said Bernardes. “And he got stabbed.”

She added that sometime after police arrived, members of the Emergency Task Force and Police Dog Service showed up to track two suspects who ran off and eluded capture.

As his eyes welled up, a man standing south of the house on his veranda said his girlfriend got him up when she “heard gunshots and screaming” Monday night.

“I’m bummed out right now, he was my friend,” said the man, who wanted to remain anonymous. “He was a really nice guy and grew up in that house.”

The man went on to say the dead man had just gotten a new kitten and added “he had no beefs with anybody on the street.”

“He was a really nice guy and lived with his stepdad,” said the neighbour, who added the dead man’s family had gone through a lot over the past year, with both his mother and grandmother passing away.

The home where the violence took place could be seen to have at least two video surveillance cameras — one over the front door and another poking out through a ripped window screen on the second floor.

Det.-Sgt. John Allington told CTV Toronto News “the two men are related. And they both reside at the house together.”

“I understand how and incident like this can cause concern within the community,“ said Allington. “I can tell you, I believe, that’s this was a targeted incident.”

The shooting death marks the city’s 85th homicide of the year.