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Police are investigating after a man was seriously injured following a drive-by shooting in downtown Toronto overnight.
Toronto police said the shooting happened around 2 a.m. in the area of King Street and Portland Street in the city’s fashion district.
Toronto Paramedics said a male in his 20s suffered a single gunshot wound and was transported to hospital in serious but non-life threatening condition.
READ MORE: Sister of Queen St. homicide victim says brother was ‘in the wrong place, at the wrong time’
Police said they located a white SUV with a bullet hole and occupants in the vehicle are cooperating with investigators.
Violent Canada Day weekend in Toronto
Eleven people have been shot in the Greater Toronto Area since Friday.
A teenage boy was found with a gunshot wound behind a North York church Saturday afternoon.
Two people from the city’s rap scene were killed in a brazen daylight shooting on Queen Street on Saturday evening in the entertainment district – Jahvante Smart, 21, also known as Smoke Dawg, and Ernest Modekwe, 28, both of Toronto. A woman who was also shot is expected to recover.
READ MORE: Toronto rapper Smoke Dawg identified as 1 of 2 dead in downtown shooting
Another four people were injured by gunshots late Sunday just in the city’s Kensington Market area.
Meanwhile, two Brampton men aged 28 and 32 were injured in a shooting on Monday afternoon.
Toronto has recorded 51 homicides so far this year, including 22 people killed by guns. There were 27 homicides at this point in 2017.
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Mayor Tory says Toronto still a safe city, but concerned about gun violence
Toronto Mayor John Tory addressed the shootings on Canada Day weekend on Tuesday saying the city is still safe but that violent shootings in recent months is a grave concern.
“I will continue to talk about Toronto as being one of the safest cities in North America and the world because that is the truth,” Tory said.
“But we have a grave concern about some things that are happening in the recent weeks and months, yes we do, and that’s all the reason we have to redouble our efforts to get these gangsters, round them up and get them off the street.”
Tory said there is no easy solution to curbing gun and gang violence and simply adding more police officers on the streets or reintroducing the controversial practice of carding, will not immediately solve the problem.
“I’m told that actually the murder rate was higher, for example when carding was in effect than it is right now,” Tory said.
“Anybody who pretends, and I’ve seen the police union president out there pretending that the entire answer to this rests in hiring more police officers. Other people are suggesting the entire answer rests in bringing back carding. And I think that anybody who suggests to the people of Toronto that they have the entire answer in one little slogan or one little policy proposal is misleading the people of Toronto and giving them false hopes.”
VIDEO: Mayor John Tory refuses to back off on Toronto’s ongoing crime problem
— With a file from The Canadian Press
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