The corner of Morningside and Ellesmere was the scene of a bloody, gunshot-riddled car crash Wednesday morning. The crime scene was one block away from UTSC directly across from the Centennial College HP Campus, meaning that many students living near campus, like Chris Smith, a fifth-year political science student at UTSC who heard the shots firsthand.

“All I heard was gunshots—bang, bang, bang—like that. And not long after I heard a lot of sirens… it was pretty intense. Normally you only see a couple of cop cars, not 15 or 20.” Early that morning over a dozen police cars were still lined up along the street next to a crashed compact car—the result of a late-night highspeed chase involving gunshots, a helicopter scan and a call for help to cruisers from multiple divisions.

The chase began after a man was shot near Wellesley and Parliament and two suspects were seen attempting to make a getaway in a small green vehicle. It quickly escalated into a multi-car chase for more than 40 kilometers, finally ending when the vehicle lost control and swerved into a guardrail on the side of the road. One suspect fled the vehicle into nearby Morningside Park, while the other refused to get out of the car. An Emergency Task Force and K-9 Unit were both brought in to subdue the uncooperative suspect, and eventually escorted him out of the vehicle. Police quickly surrounded the area of the park and soon found the fleeing suspect hiding in a ravine.

While two individual patients were taken to Sunnybrook hospital, it is uncertain whether the injuries sustained were from the car accident or shots fired by police.

As of early yesterday morning, more than a dozen white bullet casing markers littered the ground around the suspect vehicle, which was lying across the sidewalk of the opposite lane with the trunk and driver side door open. The green compact sustained extensive damage, with both headlights smashed in, a broken window, and bullet holes across the driver’s-side door. The police cruiser closest to the suspect vehicle had its driver’s side window shot out.