OTTAWA: Six people, including a 73-year-old suspect, died and one was seriously injured in a shooting at a residential building in the city of Vaughan in Canada’s Ontario province on Sunday night, local police said.
The suspect was shot at by police and pronounced dead at the scene, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said in a statement Monday morning. The SIU, which investigates deaths involving police, said it was looking into the death of the suspect and that a post-mortem was scheduled for Tuesday.
Authorities have not released more information about the victims or the suspect’s motive.
“We’re in the process right now of doing notifications to those families, so at this point I can’t share any information on the victims or the subject,” York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween told reporters Sunday night, according to local media.
Police responded to a call about an “active male shooter who had shot several victims” at a condominium in Vaughan, just north of Toronto, the York Regional Police Department said in a statement.
An investigation is ongoing, it said, adding that there was no further threat to public safety.
Earlier, local police chief Jim MacSween told reporters at the scene that the suspect also died after an exchange of fire with law enforcement, adding the shooting took place in an apartment building. “Once the officers arrived, they were met with... a horrendous scene where numerous victims were deceased,” he told nationally-televised news conference.
“They (police) went right into the building and dealt with the situation. One of our officers did discharge a firearm, I can confirm that. And as a result the suspect is deceased,” he added.
Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2022