Man dead in Scarborough as Toronto homicides hit 5-year high

A man is dead after a shooting in Scarborough overnight, Toronto police say as data shows homicides have hit a five-year high.

At 12:13 a.m. Thursday, police said officers responded to reports of a shooting near Eglinton Avenue East and Markham Road.

Officers found a man who was injured. Police said they performed life-saving measures, and the victim was taken to hospital by emergency run. He later died in hospital.

Police did not release any further information about the victim, or any suspect description.

The homicide squad is now investigating.

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Thursday’s slaying would be the 83^rd homicide in Toronto this year – a five-year high, according to police data.

According to the force’s public safety data portal – which shows 82 homicides for 2024 as of publication – 42 of those slayings have been by shooting, while 22 have been by stabbing; 18 homicides are classified as “other.”

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The last time the city cracked the 80 figure was in 2021 when 81 homicides were logged: 43 of those deaths were by shooting, 15 by stabbing and 23 by other. Homicides in 2023 and 2020 were at 69, while 2022 saw 68 homicides recorded, the data shows.

The drop in Toronto’s homicides last year contributed to the overall decline of murders in Canada for 2023.

Statistics Canada data released earlier this month showed Canadian police services report 778 homicides – 104 fewer than the previous year. Canada’s national homicide rate dropped by 14 per cent to 1.94 homicides per 100,000 population from 2.27.

This is the first time since 2019 that Canada’s homicide rate was below two homicides per 100,000 people.

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The change was led, in large part, by significant drops in homicide rates in Canada’s three major cities — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Men were far more likely than women to be victims of homicide, the data showed. There were 67 victims of intimate partner homicides, down from 103 in 2022, with women accounting for 73 per cent of those victims.

Nearly four in 10 homicides were committed with a firearm in 2023, and a quarter of all homicides, or 173 total, were gang-related in 2023.

— with files from Uday Rana