Toronto police say a man is dead after a stabbing in Scarborough early Sunday morning.
The man’s death marks Toronto’s first homicide of 2019.
Police said they received reports of a stabbing near Gordonridge Place and Danforth Road around 12:30 a.m.
When authorities arrived on scene, they located a male in his 30s with a stab wound to his upper body inside of an apartment on the 12th floor of a Toronto Community Housing building in the area.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Det. Paul Worden identified the victim as Ian Dyer, 36, of Toronto.
Worden said Dyer was staying with friends in the building at the time and was known to police, but officers do not know what led to the murder.
“From what we know now, he wasn’t doing anything of a criminal nature at the time he was killed. He was in the apartment with friends and everything was fine according to the people who were last with him,” Worden said.
Dyer was then left alone in the apartment before later being found dead by a friend, Worden said.
Police have not made any arrests or released a suspect description, but said they are reviewing surveillance footage in the building.
This is the second homicide in that building in under nine months.
Just last April, another man was killed there after he was stabbed multiple times.
Worden also said that the 12th floor is particularly known to police for drug activity.
“It is my understanding that the building has had a troubled past,” Worden said. “Unfortunately violence is not uncommon there.”
Toronto Community Housing responded to the stabbing in a statement to Global News.
“TCHC has identified the Gordonridge complex as a priority for 2019, based on the number of violent incidents and mental-health related incidents in the community, which have increased over the past year,” a spokesperson said.
“TCHC will work Toronto Police Service, the City of Toronto, community agencies and tenants to develop strategies to address safety issues.”
Toronto Mayor John Tory also commented on the shooting Sunday afternoon by telling residents that “help is on the way” and he is looking at ways to improve security in the area.
Tory also repeated his calls for the provincial government to change the rules around TCHC evictions so that it is easier to evict tenants with serious criminal convictions.
Anyone with information on the homicide is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.