Canada: Toronto police kill a man holding a gun near schools

Toronto police kill a man holding a gun near schools

Toronto police shot and killed a man walking down a street with a gun in a city neighborhood on Thursday afternoon; city officials said an incident prompted five nearby schools to impose precautionary closures.

Toronto Police Chief James Ramir told a news briefing that officers responded to news that a gunman had been shot in the area after the gunman confronted them. He declined to give further details, citing an ongoing investigation.

Earlier on Twitter, Toronto police said officers had shot and injured the suspect, who was described as a boy between his teens and early twenties.

The scene where Toronto police shot the man is located about 130 meters (426 feet) from William J. Davis Jr. Public School, the last of the five schools to emerge from the shutdown.

According to the Toronto District School Board, all school closings were lifted after a few hours.

The incident happened days after a Texas gunman killed 19 children and two elementary school teachers. The Texas shooting has sparked concern about gun violence around the world.

A Reuters witness said Toronto police had sealed off about 300 meters of the road near the scene while special investigations officers were conducting their investigations.

"I understand the shock and how shocking it must have been for the staff, students, and parents, given the recent events that have taken place in the United States," Ramir said.

Ramir said Toronto police do not have all the details of the incident yet, and "I don't want to speculate and suggest that it's something similar to what is happening in the United States."

On Tuesday, the Texas school shooting was among more than 200 mass shootings reported in the United States in 2022.

Canada's gun homicide rate is 0.5 per 100.000 people, well below the United States' rate of 4.12, according to a 2021 analysis by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).