Etobicoke fatal shooting: Victims were high school students

The two young males who died in a shooting near a school in northwest Toronto on Monday afternoon were high school students, a school board official has confirmed.

Friends and family have identified the slain Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School student as Zaid Yousif, 17. Friends of the second victim identified him as Michael Menjivar, 15, a student at James Cardinal McGuigan Catholic High School.

The shooting Monday happened behind an apartment building near two schools, in the area of Dixon Road and Islington Avenue, just after 12:30 p.m. ET. Both schools were put into either lockdown, or hold and secure mode.

"Today is really about mourning that loss of two young men, and offering support and prayers to the families and to the school community, and dealing with the aftermath of that tragic event,” said Angela Gauthier, director of the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

She stressed that the shooting was an isolated incident.

"We very much believe the school is a safe place," Gauthier said.

"These are tragic events that can happen anywhere any time, and we will deal with it on that basis. Certainly there’s plenty of time for analysis and reflection after, and we’ll bring that to bear, but today is coming together as a Catholic community to offer our prayers and support.”

Gauthier said a grief support team, including social workers and psychologists, is on hand to help students and teachers.

Menjivar's uncle, Roberto Menjivar, described his nephew as "the most wonderful kid you could ever meet in your life."

"It's such a tragedy to see such a good child not even be able to experience his life," he told CBC News. "He did not deserve this. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

He said the family has had little contact from police, and learned that Michael had died from media reports.

"His parents had to be in the hospital waiting, for hours and hours, to find out what happened with their own child," he said, choking back tears.

3 suspects sought

Police are looking for three suspects in connection with the shooting, but haven’t released any further details. One person was taken into custody at the scene on Monday, but police did not describe the individual as a suspect.

Deputy Chief Peter Sloly told Metro Morning host Matt Galloway that the department is putting its top investigators on the case.

“We’re never tired of saying that Toronto is one of the safest cities in the world," he said.

"But we don’t take any of that for granted because every act of victimization — particularly one so public, and so violent and so tragic involving so many young people — shakes our belief that things are getting better, despite the fact that they are getting better.”

Investigators are at the scene again Tuesday to conduct forensic work, interviewing witnesses and working to identify the suspects.

“We’ve put every single high-end resource from our best homicide teams, our best foot patrol teams, our best school resource officers at the disposal of the unit command," Sloly said.

“We’ve had tremendous support from local witnesses, the local community, the school officials, and we’re anticipating some positive advances in that particular investigation.”

'A tragedy'

The shooting has reignited calls for a handgun ban in the City of Toronto, as mayoral candidate Olivia Chow raised the issue at a debate Monday night.

When asked about the idea in the foyer of the House of Commons on Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said the government is committed to cracking down on gun-related crime.

“We have introduced mandatory minimum sentences [for] those [who] commit crimes with guns, and that's also why we have put three- to five-year sentences for those who are in possession illegally of firearms," he said.

"What happened yesterday is a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are going to the families who are impacted by this violence."

The recent gun violence has left students and parents in the Toronto area shaken, said school trustee Michelle Minott.

“I think our kids need to feel safe and right now,” she said.

“There’s a growing feeling of insecurities and people not even wanting to send their kids to school because they feel unsafe in the system."

Mayoral hopeful Doug Ford called the shooting "an absolute tragedy" and called for more police presence and youth outreach in the neighbourhood.

"My heart and prayers go out to the family," Ford said during a late afternoon scrum with reporters. "This is unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable."

1 killed in separate shooting

Police are also searching for four suspects after a second, unrelated shooting in Toronto on Monday.

Police found a young man with gunshot wounds in a Regent Park alley after reports of gunfire. He died later in hospital.

All four suspects were seen leaving an alleyway of Sydenham Street at the time of the shooting, they said.

Sloly said there's nothing to indicate the two shootings are related, and said there is no evidence of an escalating gang war in Toronto.

“Unfortunately, it’s just a big city with 2.6 million people and almost double that number during the daytime," he said.

"We still see that these incidents are being carried out by an extremely small percentage of the population in very small areas, and unfortunately we haven’t yet got the full cocktail of solutions.”

Toronto police work with the school board, city agencies, faith leaders and local non-profits, Sloly said, in the hopes of addressing violence within the city.

Police have investigated more than 20 gun deaths in Toronto this year.