Man shot in chest at downtown Toronto condo, police say
Toronto Star
By Emerald Bensadoun Staff Reporter
14 December 2018
Toronto police responded to a call at 2:58 a.m. Friday at York St. and
Lakeshore Blvd., and found a man with a gunshot wound in a condo
building.
In an internal email sent to building residents obtained by the Star,
the building wrote that the shooting occurred on the 16th floor of 12
York St., one of the ICE condominiums.
The victim, who fell unconscious in the building lobby, was rushed to
hospital with life-threatening injuries and is in stable condition,
Toronto police Const. David Hopkinson said.
Following the shooting, two Black males were seen running away from the
building. One was wearing a white plastic mask and dark pants, police
said. While police don’t have a clear description of the suspects,
Hopkinson said one was wearing a blue hoodie, the other a black hoodie.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Toronto police.
wasn’t surprised by a shooting there
Nikki Hau, who’s been living in the building for three years, said she wasn’t surprised by a shooting there.
“When you have that many large numbers of different people circling
through your unit all the time, something’s bound to happen,” Hau said.
neverending flows of traffic
She said there are minimal levels of security to supervise neverending
flows of traffic. Two other people who rented Airbnb rooms at the ICE
building spoke to the Star and said at certain points at night, they
didn’t need their key fob to get inside.
In her three years of living inside the building, Hau said she’d seen many a wild party, but never once a security guard.
“It’s generally like a hotel,” said Hau when asked about how frequent
the units are used for Airbnbs. “I would say on a Friday between 4 and
7 p.m. the lobby will be packed with people, essentially checking into
their hotels.”
The day of the shooting, residents of the building were greeted to a
notice on the wall that said the management office in the building
would be closed the entire day.
Attempts to reach management by the Star were unsuccessful.
Sloane Oswald, a Carleton University graduate now living in Toronto, attested to this when she rented an Airbnb in the building.
there was absolutely no security
“It was just kind of weird because there was absolutely no security.
The building doors were unlocked. We didn’t even have to buzz into the
building to get in,” said Oswald, who added that she didn’t even need
the building key fob to get into her Airbnb.
Cameron Annear, another ICE condo resident, said the building was not
unlike other condos he’s been in — with the exception of Airbnb renters
frequently mistaking his apartment for theirs and trying to claim it as
their own.
“The security guards are super nice, they can be really helpful when it
comes to logistical stuff, but when it comes to physical security? Not
so much,” said Annear.
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