Subway Down & Shuttles Soaring After Spadina Station Shoot-Out

The National Post details an eyewitness account that makes it sound less like "heavy gunfire" and more like an odd fight between teeange girls and boys that escalated to a knife being pulled and "a gun going off" in retaliation.

Either way, it's not good news.

This was a dramatic event and still the writer finds a way to be inflammatory. Most (all?) media outlets are reporting there was one gun involved with one or two shots fired. Hardly a "shoot-out."

TTC priorities:

1,2,3,4,5. Make it safe
6. Make it clean
7. Make it regular
8. Make it fast
1263. Remodelling stations so that they don't offend against Sandra Bussin's "art background"

I'm sure the national media will report it as "heavy gunfire".

When I posted this, media outlets were calling it a "shoot out" with "heavy gunfire". As you can see by the updates, details are finally coming to light.

Jeezis. Everyone knows you should never bring a knife to a gunfight.

Amateurs.

Are you sure this wasn't a NewMindSpace event?

another case of young black men shooting teenaged girls.

if only they were not allowed to buy handguns this...oh wait thats clearly not the problem

@davidmiller

You obviously didn't read the accounts of what really happened, because witnesses said the "teenaged girls" pulled a knife first. As far as I'm concerned, a weapon is a weapon, be it a gun OR a knife. I'm not saying the shooter was justified, I'm saying that BOTH parties are at fault here.

The problem is not that black men like to shoot people, the problem is black men raised in an environment (Jane & Finch) that is overridden by gangs and social problems we couldn't begin to understand.

You're right, the ability to purchase handguns legally is not the problem. However, just throwing them in jail is not the solution. The solution is to change the environment in which they're raised. Until that happens, it's just going to be an endless cycle of kids going to jail/getting killed, and new kids taking their place.

I am strongly in favour of the state finding you guilty for using a weapon, taking both your hands off as payment and a warning to others who would use weapons to solve disputes. Don't care who you are, what the reason is...you're guilty, you lose your hands. Problem solved. Don't think it's fair, go find some socialist country to move to and cry to them.

Another approach, could we not adjust the terrorism definitions slightly to include guns and thereby detain and/or ship them off to Syrian camps indefinitely for possession of a firearm? That sounds pretty tidy to me. Let me get my MP on the phone....

wow toronto is in the same level as nyc finally

First of all, Toronto is NOT EVEN CLOSE to the same level as nyc as stated above. Clearly this incident hardly involved 'heavy-gunfire' as the article notes above. Two groups of silly teenagers who really shouldn't have weapons just got out of control and stupidly took their own lives, and others, into their hands. As far as I'm concerned a little flesh wound is a good lesson for the young lady, at least she didn't lose her life or take someone else's in the process of mouthy dispute.

Before branding me as a "racist", can we have an open discussion about why it seems that more and more of our young men in this city are carrying guns? Black or white or whatever, why does it seem that more and more BOYS are carrying guns in this city and pulling when "disrespected"???

@rach -- I was waiting for someone with their head in the sand to make such an ignorant comment. Put your 80s movies away and pay attention:

Murders on New York subways in 2006: 2
Murders on New York subways in 2007: 4
Murders on TTC in 2006: 0
Murders on TTC in 2007: 1

Given that the MTA/NYC have 4x the riders/population of TTC/Toronto, I would say that subway crime for that particular act is very low but also very comparable.

I don't know how many non-fatal shootings there have been on the MTA this year so far, but I think the answer is 1. Looks like the odds of getting shot up at Yorkdale or Spadina stations are tiny but nonetheless comparable to Penn Station or Utica Ave. Face it - Toronto now has the same criminal scum underclass that have been present in American cities for years. Turns out Toronto wasn't any better at avoiding it after all - no magic formula of urban planning or Canadian economics or better health care; without any real action to crack down it was just a matter of time. A persistent low level of horrible acts is now part of the TTC. It's a sad day for everyone.

Descriptions of the suspects released:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_21175.aspx