Police chief calls 2018, with 95 homicides so far, a ‘unique’ year for Toronto

Dec 27, 2018 | 3:17 PM

Toronto’s police chief says an unusually violent year in the city hit closer to home for most of the public because of two mass killing incidents.

Mark Saunders says a deadly van attack in April and a mass shooting in the bustling Danforth neighbourhood made residents question the safety of their city.

Ten people died when a 25-year-old man allegedly drove a rented van down a busy stretch of Toronto’s Yonge Street.

Three months later, an 18-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl were killed when a man sprayed bullets along the Danforth before shooting himself.

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Toronto has surpassed its previous record for homicides in a year, with 95 recorded so far in 2018 compared to 89 in 1991.

But Saunders says the city remains a safe place to live, describing this year as “unique” and predicting violence would subside in 2019.

The Canadian Press