A man in his 20s is dead after a shooting at Scarborough Town Centre on Thursday afternoon, Toronto police say.
Police say they received reports that a person was dead inside the mall at about 1:50 p.m.
The man was found in a family washroom near a food court on the lower level in the mall at 300 Borough Dr., near Highway 401 and McCowan Road. A firearm was located nearby, police say.
When Toronto paramedics arrived, they pronounced the man dead at the scene.
After reviewing surveillance camera video, officers deemed the mall to be safe and cordoned off an area where the shooting occurred. Forensic experts examined the immediate area and divisional investigators were on the scene.
Shooting involved ‘potentially a single shot,’ police say
Toronto police acting inspector Baheer Sarvanandan told reporters near an entrance to the mall that only one shot may have been fired and that might explain why no one reported hearing any gunfire.
“It doesn’t appear to be multiple shots, potentially a single shot,” he said.
“This happened in a very confined space that no one knew,” Sarvanandan said. “It’s a very busy mall and in that type of environment it’s hard to hear.”
He could not say if the gunshot was self-inflicted. Police are investigating the incident as a suspicious death, he added.
Sarvanandan said police did not lock down the mall because they believed it was not an active shooter situation and officers found a firearm in the washroom.
“We take these things very seriously,” he added.
Later in the afternoon, police expanded the area in the mall that was taped off.
Homicide detectives have been notified and are monitoring the investigation but have not taken it over.
Police said there was a heavy police presence at the mall on Thursday as officers continued to investigate.
Witness says he ‘didn’t hear a sound’
Steve Grabill, who was at the mall at the time, said he was coming out of the washroom when he saw police officers putting up a screen.
“All of a sudden, a police officer said, ‘There’s nothing to see here, just keep on moving,'” Grabill told CBC News. “But I didn’t hear a sound. Not anything at all.”
Grabill said he has been coming to the mall since it opened in the mid-1970s and it’s the first time he’s heard of a shooting there. He said news of the shooting makes him nervous.
“It could have happened anywhere in the mall,” he said.
In a statement on Thursday night, Coun. Michael Thompson, who represents Ward 21, Scarborough Centre, said he thinks the suspicious death should not prompt anyone to avoid the Scarborough Town Centre.
“I urge everyone to go about their daily business and not abandon the public square out of fear. Scarborough Town Centre is a large, welcoming and vibrant gathering place which anchors the shopping activities of hundreds of thousands of residents in the eastern region of Toronto,” Thompson said in the statement.
No suspect information has been released. Anyone with information is being urged to contact police.
