For residents of the Rexdale community in Etobicoke, Sunday night brought a familiar sound — police sirens.
Toronto police say officers were called to an apartment building near Rexdale Boulevard and Bergamot Avenue at around 11:37 p.m.
When officers arrived, police said they found a man in his 20s with gunshot wounds in the parking lot outside the building.
Despite paramedics’ lifesaving efforts, the man was pronounced dead at the scene and was not taken to hospital, investigators said.
In an update on Wednesday, police said the victim was a 25-year-old man but would not release his identity.
Roy Rambharack, who lives in the area, didn’t see what happened, but heard the police sirens Sunday evening.
“You’re used to it. You’re always hearing sirens, ambulance, cops flying up and down,” said Rambharack.
On Monday afternoon, police towed a red Genesis sedan that was in front of the building. They say the car is connected to the shooting, but they won’t say how.
There is no word on suspects or what led to the shooting. Police also couldn’t say if there is a risk to public safety.
Anyone with information or video of the area is asked to contact police.
“The residents are getting scared. They’re traumatized … How much more family is going to be crying because of gun violence?” said Keaton Austin, a pastor at Young Lives Matter Outreach Ministry.
Austin says mothers have come to him weeping for the lives lost due to gun violence.
Just last Tuesday, a shooting on Hickory Tree Road left two men dead.
Two days later, a drive-by shooting at a plaza on Finch Avenue West and Westmore Drive left a 39-year-old dead.
The week prior, two back-to-back shootings at the same bus stop on Driftwood Avenue left a 16-year-old critically injured, and killed a 40-year-old father of four.
All incidents are within a 15-minute radius of each other.
“I used to live around here. It wasn’t bad, not like this,” said Ron Treacher, another pastor who is involved in the community.
“The police want $20 million, and Olivia Chow is gonna give $20 million — for what? So people get killed more and more?” said Treacher, in response to Toronto council’s recently-approved funding boost for police.
Etobicoke North councillor Vincent Crisanti said the loss of life in this shooting is “terrible”.
But he says change “doesn’t happen overnight”.
“We’re about 800 officers short of where we were in 2010, and keep in mind in 2010, we had a population that was about 700,000 or 800,000 less than it is today,” Crisanti told Global News.
Austin is calling for bail reform, so that perpetrators aren’t allowed back on the streets so soon after committing a crime.
Crisanti agrees that’s one piece of the puzzle. Finding a solution is a multi-pronged approach that will take collaboration from all levels of government.
For the feds, it comes down to cracking down on illegal gun smuggling.
For the municipality, he expects support from police forces and community services, like in the most recent budget.
Crisanti said he is confident there’s a path forward where residents can feel safe in their own community again.
But Austin and Reacher say they’ve grown tired of waiting.
“The community says enough is enough,” said Austin.