A 23-year-old man is dead after a Tuesday night shooting attack near a Tim Hortons on the campus of Ryerson University that sent another man to hospital.
Police have identified the dead man as Jerry Bugyei-Twum, a Toronto resident.
Andre Francis, 19, was also shot several times, but managed to stagger to St. Michael’s Hospital, where he is expected to recover.
According to an eyewitness, who was standing outside the Tim Hortons during the incident, Bugyei-Twum was shot three times in the chest by a man sitting in the driver’s seat of a car facing north on Victoria Street. The witness said it sounded like a fully automatic weapon was used.
“It sounded like cherry bombs going off,” he said.
Just before 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Bugyei-Twum was arguing with a young man in a dark-coloured four-door automobile, when the driver opened fire, the witness said.
“The [shooter] was yelling ‘Let me handle this, Let me handle this,’” said the witness. “He then pulled out an automatic weapon and shot the guy. It happened really quickly.”
After Bugyei-Twum was shot he staggered across the street, where he collapsed in front of a Second Cup coffee shop. An ambulance rushed him to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A man on scene said Bugyei-Twum was known on the street as Rukkus.The man, who said he was a friend of the victim, said Bugyei-Twum liked to play chess at the tables next to Sam The Record Man, on Gould Street, in the summer. Bugyei-Twum was not from the area, the man said, and didn’t spend much time around campus in the winter.
“For [the shooters] to know he was down here they must have tailed him,” the man said.
Victoria Street, from just south of Gould Street to Dundas Street, was shut down for most of the night, as police investigated the killing.
“We’ve called in units from all over the Toronto area to patrol the downtown area,” said Det. Jim Dillabough.
Heavily armed Emergency Task Force officers responded to the crime scene, but police believe the shooter fled immediately after the shooting.Dillabough said that police believe additional suspects may have fled the scene by escaping into the Dundas subway station.
Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino was briefly on scene, before leaving in a black luxury sedan.
Ryerson student Julia Spiegelberg was in class in the business building when the shooting occurred.
“It disrupted the class,” she said. “Everyone heard it.”
Police believe the shooter may have been caught on Ryerson security cameras. Ryerson security could not comment as of press time.
—With files from Matthew Kwong and Melissa Godsoe