A 23-year-old man is facing two counts of first-degree murder after a shooting in downtown Toronto Tuesday afternoon that left his father and brother dead and his mother injured.
Toronto police confirmed Wednesday morning that charges have been laid in connection with the incident that reportedly began in a home and spilled onto a busy downtown street.
Emergency crews responded to Parliament Street and Dundas Street East just before 1:30 p.m. for a shooting.
Three victims were located: two men and one woman. One of the men died at the scene in the Parliament and Dundas area.
The other man and the woman were found in a home nearby on Arnold Avenue and were rushed to hospital, police said.
The second man died in hospital and the woman is reported to have non-life-threatening injuries.
The two fatalities mark Toronto’s 14th and 15th homicides of 2024.
Toronto resident Benedict Johnson Kongolo, 23, is facing two counts of first-degree murder. Global News has learned his street name is “Joeazy.”
The incident began at a house Arnold Avenue where shots were fired, Det. Sgt. Tiffany Castel said Tuesday. The incident finished around Dundas and Parliament, where shots were also fired, prior to a foot pursuit of the suspect by officers, Castell said.
“That foot pursuit was a brief foot pursuit, but did result in quite an altercation” that injured two officers, Castell said.
One officer injured their arm and the other their legs, she said, adding that they were taken to hospital.
The suspect was arrested and a gun was recovered, police said.
At the time of Castell’s update Tuesday evening, one of the officers had been released from hospital.
Castell said the suspect and the victims were related, but didn’t elaborate.
Global News has learned that the victims were the suspect’s father, brother and mother.
Police are not looking for any other suspects.
Castell said the fact that part of the shooting took place on a busy downtown street in the middle of the day is “terrifying.”
“Certainly there (were) bullets flying everywhere so the fact that we didn’t have anyone else hit, I think, is a bit of a miracle,” she said.
Anyone with information on the shooting was asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
— With files from Tracy Tong