A Toronto police special weapons and gang group is investigating a shooting early Saturday morning that wounded five Muslim men in a mall parking lot and is also being monitored by the Hate Crimes Unit, a police spokesman said.
Police responded to a call for a shooting at 1 a.m. Saturday in the parking lot of Cedar Heights Plaza on Lawrence Avenue and Markham Road in the Scarborough area of Toronto. Five men were seriously injured, but at least three were released from hospital by Sunday and all are expected to fully recover.
Police reports say the men were shot by a man passing by in what may have been a blue car.
Toronto police officer David Hopkinson said police had not yet identified a motive for the attack and were still gathering evidence, including all video surveillance footage taken from nearby stores and other organizations.
“I know some people think it’s an accident, but we don’t have any evidence to suggest that. At the moment, we are just speculating and we do not like to speculate, “he said.
Interim Police Chief James Ramer announced on Twitter on Saturday that the Hate Crimes Unit had been “engaged,” but according to Officer Hopkinson, in cases like this, the unit will not be an active participant in the investigation led by Detective Mandip Parmar. weapons and gang group.
“The fact that all people are of the same faith gives us some concern,” said Officer Hopkinson.
The men were attacked in the middle of the holiest month of Islam, Ramadan, and this section of Lawrence Avenue has several mosques and religious centers. During Ramadan, members of the Muslim faith fast and abstain from eating between dawn and dusk, and attendance increases for events such as evening prayers, which can last until almost midnight.
According to Yusuf Ingar of the Scarborough Muslim Association, some of the men had just finished their evening prayers at the nearby Scarborough Muslim Cultural Center, about a 20-minute walk away.
“Please keep in mind that we have no reason to believe that this is a hate crime at this time. We are working with the 43rd Division and we hope that TPS will provide adequate resources to investigate this shooting, “the association said in a statement on Sunday.
Weil Khan, an imam at the Central Mosque across the street from Cedar Heights Plaza, said police had already reviewed mosque security records from the night in question. “The scary thing is that the families leave maybe half an hour earlier with children. We had about 50 people who left, “he said.
He said he believed some of the injured men were regular visitors to the mosque.
In the latest report by the Toronto Police Hate Crimes Division, covering 2020, hate crime increased by 51% compared to 2019 to 210 reports (the average for 10 years is about 152 per year). There are 82 reports of religiously motivated hate crimes (the largest category of crimes with 39 percent of the total), but only 5 percent of the reported victims are Muslims, while 76 percent of the reports are against those of the Jewish faith (63 reports).
According to an analysis by The Globe and Mail, police services in Canada have been screened for the relatively low rate of clearing cases involving hate crimes. Toronto police investigations into hate crimes have been uncovered in less than 20 percent of cases.
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