Toronto Van Killings

[Amor de Cosmos]

Nine fatalities so far in what appears to be a deliberate mass killing on Yonge Street.

[Satchmo Distel]

Awful news. Hurts personally in part because it's my favourite city that I have ever visited and I would not want the city to be changed in any way by an act of mass murder (if it proves to be one).

[ursus arctos]

The short clip of the driver trying to commit "suicide by cop" (brandishing his phone as if it was a gun) and a police officer resolutely refusing to oblige him speaks volumes as to the difference in policing on the opposite sides of the border.

[Sits]

Hope WOM and all those he knows and loves are safe and well. And yes I know it’s a big place.

Very sad.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/mattfrehner/status/988541102281064451?s=21

https://twitter.com/cbcalerts/status/988553757872087040?s=21

[WOM]

Hope WOM and all those he knows and loves are safe and well. And yes I know it’s a big place.

Me and mine are all fine. Weirdly, it all went down on my (creative) partner's front door step. Like, literally, on his condo's front stoop, so he's a bit freaked out.
I have no idea what it's all about, or motivations or anything. It's just sad. 10 dead now and 16 more injured.

[Satchmo Distel]

The short clip of the driver trying to commit "suicide by cop" (brandishing his phone as if it was a gun) and a police officer resolutely refusing to oblige him speaks volumes as to the difference in policing on the opposite sides of the border.

There will be many American viewers (one in the White House) puzzled that the cop did not oblige.

But this is extremely sad and I'm glad WOM and loved ones are OK.

[Satchmo Distel]

Guardian is still misidentifying the suspect on its live page:

Police have named the driver as 25-year-old Alex Minassian from Richmond Hill, Ontario. Social media identifies him as a college student.

It's not him.

[Janik]

It seems it is him, after all. Or at least he is the suspect Toronto police have arrested.

That's a name of Armenian origin, one would assume. So highly likely a Christian background.

[Kevin S]

Awful news. Hurts personally in part because it's my favourite city that I have ever visited and I would not want the city to be changed in any way by an act of mass murder (if it proves to be one).

Horrible news.

If the days after mass shootings are not the time to talk about gun control, is now not the time to debate whether we could just do away with private vehicles in city centres?

[WOM]

Oh, this didn't go down anywhere near a 'city centre'.

Yonge Street bisects Toronto right up the middle, from Lake Ontario due northward until...well...nobody's really sure how far north it goes.

And Sheppard Avenue is north of Highway 401, which bisects Toronto east-west. This happened, for all intents and purposes, in a satellite 'downtown' that's on the northern fringe of the city.

This area, specifically, has no real symbolic value. It's not like Times Square or the Champs Elysee or anything like that. it's just a stretch of road that would have slightly above average foot traffic on a sunny day.

[Satchmo Distel]

It seems it is him, after all. Or at least he is the suspect Toronto police have arrested.

That's a name of Armenian origin, one would assume. So highly likely a Christian background.

Sorry I was being unclear. The suspect is called Alek Minassian but his first name was incorrectly announced as Alex, leading some individuals of that name to get online abuse and their relatives to get press calls. See:

https://www.facebook.com/AlexMinassian

Newspapers far too slow to correct the misinformation

[Moonlight Shadow]

Apparently not someone in a very good frame of mind, he was very angry he could not find a girlfriend....

[ursus arctos]

There are evidently significant doubts as to whether those social media posts are genuine.

[WOM]

Comments in the press from people who knew him in high school seem to be describing a quiet loner type that nobody really minded...or particularly noticed.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Oh, this didn't go down anywhere near a 'city centre'... it's just a stretch of road that would have slightly above average foot traffic on a sunny day.

True re: distance, but this may be underplaying it a bit. Yonge/Finch does have 20 and 30-story apartment and office buildings. Photos in this story give you a sense of the 'hood.

[ursus arctos]

I thought WOM's "satellite downtown" was more on point.

[WOM]

When North York was its own city with its own mayor*, pre-amalgamation, that area was indeed the 'downtown' of North York. But it's more built-up thoroughfares than an actual 'district'.


*Mel Lastman Square is just to the north of this area, I believe. Or just to the south. I'm fuzzy on North York, what with it being nothing terribly remarkable.

[WOM]

Echo the comments about the incredible restraint the cop showed. The driver kept quickly reaching into his pocket as if he was drawing a six-shooter in a gun fight. Cop didn't take the bait.

[Anton Gramscescu]

CBC now reporting that Facebook says the post was real.

[Anton Gramscescu]

When North York was its own city with its own mayor*, pre-amalgamation, that area was indeed the 'downtown' of North York. But it's more built-up thoroughfares than an actual 'district'.


*Mel Lastman Square is just to the north of this area, I believe. Or just to the south. I'm fuzzy on North York, what with it being nothing terribly remarkable.

As I understand the incident occurred over about 20 minutes along the length of the Yonge strip from Finch to Sheppard (he circled round at least once) and Mel Lastman Square is dead in the middle of that strip. "Built-up thoroughfares" is an excellent description. I actually can't think of another place quite like it - a "second city centre" that dense/tall and yet not really a district in and of itself either. The only thing I can think of is the new business centre in the west end of Moscow, but it's nothing like as ritzy as that.

Sharjah - Dubai might be another one. Distance is similar - difference is leafy upper-middle class suburbs separating the two centres rather than sand

[ursus arctos]

Mid-Wildshire?

[WOM]

Sharjah - Dubai might be another one.

Yeah, exactly the comparison I was going to make.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Mid-Wildshire?

Not sure I know which part of town that is. Is that the area around LACMA?

[ursus arctos]

More east of there, although the district has likely expanded to include it now.

I was primarily thinking of The Miracle Mile