Toronto police say the homicide unit is investigating after a man was pushed from a balcony in the downtown core.
Police said it happened on Wednesday at around 11:58 p.m. in the Church and Shuter streets area.
Speaking at the scene on Thursday afternoon, Det. Sgt. Henri Harsman said the call was initially for unknown trouble in the area.
A man was pushed from a balcony and rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
He was identified later as 38-year-old Ryan Williams.
Neighbours told Global News the man landed on scaffolding outside the building, just above street level. He was visible to many in the apartments above, they said, while first responders attempted unsuccessful life-saving measures before he was taken to hospital.
Bashar Safieddine, who lives in the building, told Global News he called around midnight after he heard a loud bang. He said he was confused about what was going on, but when he saw someone on the scaffolding, he began to realize what had happened.
At first, Safieddine said he thought someone could be sleeping on the top of the scaffolding below his house until he saw paramedics and police tending to the man.
Another neighbour, Ibby Albazz, said he had noticed issues in one of the units in the building recently.
He told Global News that over the past two weeks, he had noticed more seemingly transient people coming and going from a unit on the eighth floor. Albazz said he had seen one man drinking in the shared area of the building and had called police a week earlier after a fight that sounded like it may have been about drugs and involved a knife.
Albazz said there had been a “constant rotation” of people going in and out of the apartment recently.
Police said they were looking for a suspect, who was with three other people when the deceased fell from the eighth floor.
The suspect is described as a man aged 30 to 40 years old and standing around five feet eight inches tall. He wore a black jacket, beige pants and goes by the street name “Justice.”
The three others who were allegedly with the suspect are people “of interest,” police said.
One is a man, standing around five feet 10 inches tall. He was last seen wearing a black jacket, a grey shirt, dark grey sweatpants and black shoes with white soles.
Two women, both around five feet six inches, are also urged to contact police.
One had brown hair in a high bun and a thin build. She wore black pants with white accents on the sides and red shoes with white soles and pulled a grocery trolley bag. The other had a thin build and dark hair and wore a black jacket, a white toque and black pants and shoes.
The homicide unit is leading the investigation.
— with files from Global News’ Catherine McDonald
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