A police officer was killed and at least two people are in hospital Monday (September 12) following broad daylight shootings in the Toronto area, police and local media said.
The main suspect was arrested after fleeing in a stolen vehicle, regional police added, citing two shootings.
“One person was pronounced dead at the scene and 2 others were taken to hospital
,” police said on Twitter.
There is no longer
"another threat to public safety"
, the authorities then indicated.
Several local media, including public broadcaster CBC, claim that a Toronto police officer was killed, a particularly rare act in Canada.
Just before 4:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. GMT), regional authorities had issued an alert about an
"armed"
and
"dangerous"
man who had allegedly fled from a shopping center after a shooting.
Shortly after, police in the town of Milton, a few miles away, said they arrested the suspect involved in a second shooting.
wave of violence
Canada has recently been rocked by several episodes of great violence, including a series of stabbings in an isolated Indigenous community in Saskatchewan on September 4 that left 10 people dead and 18 injured.
One of the suspects in this case was found dead and the second was arrested after four days on the run, before dying in custody.
In April 2020, a shooter posing as a police officer killed 22 people in Nova Scotia.
In January 2017, six people were killed and five were injured in attacks on a mosque in Quebec.