Two teenagers have been rushed to hospital after a drive-by shooting outside a North York middle school. It happened shortly before 10 a.m. outisde Oakdale Park Middle School on Grandravine Drive, just east of Jane Street.Fred Lum/Globe and Mail
A manhunt was under way in North York for a gunman who shot and injured two teenagers outside Oakdale Park Middle School not long after the school day had begun in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood, putting classrooms into lockdown.
Shortly after the double shooting at 10 a.m., a girl believed to be 14 was taken to The Hospital for Sick Children with a bullet wound to the foot, while a 19-year-old man was taken to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre with multiple gunshot injuries to his torso. Neither victim is a student at Oakdale and neither is known to police, Inspector Randy Carter said.
Although the shooting took place in the Jane-Finch community, which has a bad reputation for persistent crime, the school itself does not have a history of violence.
Witnesses said the incident appeared to have been an ambush directed at the man as he walked out of the Oakdale Community Centre, directly across the street from the school on Grandravine Drive.
The gunman was said to have first fired from a parked car before getting out, running toward the fallen victim and firing again several times.
As he went back to his the car, he turned and fired at two 14-year-old girls who were nearby, hitting one in the leg.
She was not the "primary target," Insp. Carter said, but it was unclear what connection, if any, she had to the first victim.
A second girl who was with her ran into the school building unscathed. Both girls are former Oakdale students, trustee Howard Kaplan said.
A witness told CTV News that the girl was shot after she yelled at the gunman.
The school was locked down for a little under two hours before normal routine returned for its roughly 600 students. Oakdale is attended by students in Grade 6 through 8. It serves a high-needs neighbourhood, and has recently received financial support from the Toronto District School Board's Model Schools for Inner Cities program.
"It's not an automatic indication that it's an unsafe area," said Insp. Carter, responding to the fact the shooting happened just outside school property lines. "We spend a lot of time and a lot of resources to make this area safe … and the constant co-operation we receive from the community is huge."
School principal Craig Crone ran out to help the two injured people, police confirmed.
"It's upsetting for the kids, which is why we have a team of social workers here," Toronto District School Board spokeswoman Shari Schwartz-Maltz told a throng of reporters. Students at the school wear black pants and white shirts – the parents requested uniforms, which is uncommon in the public school system. "There really is a strong sense of community in the school. We do lock the doors during the day, and there is a [security]circuit monitor at the front of the school. People look out for each other at this school."
The suspect is described as being 17 or 18 years old, with a light-black complexion and a height of about 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 10, He wore a grey hooded top and was driven away from the crime scene in a four-door silver vehicle.
Detectives were also trying to determine how many guns were involved in the incident; it was not clear yet if anyone returned fire.
With a report from Timothy Appleby and Tu Thanh Ha