Toronto police are appealing for the public’s help in the shooting death of a student they say they’ve made “minimal” progress on.
At 8:12 p.m. on Oct. 7, police said they were called to the area of Clearview Heights and Trethewey Drive for a shooting. When officers arrived, they found a man in a parking lot behind the building suffering from gunshot wounds. He was rushed to hospital where he later died.
The victim was identified Monday as 26-year-old Marvin Baah, a student who was visiting the building at the time of the shooting, Det.-Sgt. Tiffany Castell said.
“I believe Baah was shot in the rear stairwell of 83 Clearview Heights, and ultimately came to rest in the parking lot outside of there,” she told reporters.
“As far as I’ve been told from his family, he was a student. He was a lovely gentleman, loved his family and his friends.”
Lack of witnesses frustrating police
Castell spoke to reporters Monday – a week since the shooting – and revealed the force has made little progress on the case so far.
“There are very few witnesses who’ve come forward,” she said.
“There’s also minimal video coverage in that area, so at this point I do not have any information with regards to suspects.”
Baah was a “young man brimming with potential” who was came to Canada from Ghana, a GoFundMe states.
“On October 7th, 2024, our beloved Marvin was senselessly murdered, being shot and killed, and caught in the crossfire of gun violence in Toronto,” it reads in part.
“He moved to Canada from Ghana in 2022 to pursue his studies in accounting and business management at York University, leaving behind his mother, father, and three younger siblings.”
At the time of the shooting, Castell said there were dozens of people in the parking where Baah collapsed after walking out of the stairwell.
“What I know for certain based on the minimal video that I do have is there were many people in that parking lot,” she said.
“There are many people in our city who are aware of what happened to Mr. Baah, and at this point I’m appealing to witnesses in our city, not only for my homicide investigation but for Mr. Baah and his family, to come forward, to contact us, do the right thing and let us know what happened to Mr. Baah in that stairwell.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7400, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477.