The city’s latest homicide victim was gunned down in a drive-by shooting outside an east-end cafe where two others have been killed in recent years, leading local councillors to call for the business to be shuttered.
Det. Leslie Dunkley said 20-year-old Abdullah Farah was on the sidewalk outside Cloud Nine Cafe on Danforth Avenue near Coxwell Avenue with a few others around 1:30 a.m. Sunday when someone in a vehicle suddenly opened fire.
A witness video obtained by Global News shows several people frantically huddled around Farah as his body lays on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. Screams and shrieks are heard in the chaos as some try to give him first aid.
“Put pressure on it!” a woman shouts as a man sobs. Police and paramedics quickly arrive, and most of the crowd scatters.
Farah was rushed to hospital, where he died from his injuries. No one else was reported shot and investigators believe Farah was targeted, Dunkley said.
Dunkley said the suspect vehicle sped off while those with Farah also fled. The shooting left bullet casings littered on the road.
He said the white four-door sedan was last seen heading eastbound on Danforth.
Investigators are reviewing surveillance video and have spoken to several witnesses, but Dunkley called on those standing next to Farah when the gunfire erupted to contact police.
“We desperately need witnesses to come forward,” Dunkley said, adding investigators are trying to figure out what occurred prior to the shooting.
Last May another young man was shot dead while standing in the doorway of what was then called the Rotana Cafe, while an off-duty firefighter was fatally stabbed there in 2013.
READ MORE: Police investigate fatal shooting on Danforth Avenue
Local resident Ingrid Mueller interrupted Dunkley’s news conference, saying those in the neighbourhood have long complained to the city about the shisha cafe, which was renamed after last year’s shooting.
“We’re terrified” said Mueller, who lives steps away and heard the gunshots. “If we walk from the Greenwood subway at night… you don’t know if you’re going to be shot.”
Area Councillor Paula Fletcher said the business is a problem and needs to be shut down.
She said the local police detachment and the city licensing department have called the two earlier homicides there a “coincidence.”
“This is a bad business in a sea of great businesses,” she said. “The whole Danforth gets a black eye.” Coun. Mary Fragedakis echoed that sentiment on Twitter.
Fletcher said she and Fragedakis will meet with the licensing department Monday and want to speak to Mayor John Tory and police Chief Mark Saunders.
“We keep being told it’s a coincidence? I don’t know how you have a coincidence — three murders in front of or just outside of the same business in two and a half years is in my mind no longer a coincidence,” she told reporters.
“There needs to be special action taken here.”
Cloud Nine Cafe could not be reached Sunday. Dunkley said there is nothing at this point linking the latest shooting to the business.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7400, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637).