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An older man was getting a drink of water when Toronto Police vehicles screamed past his kitchen window, interrupting a quiet night on the outskirts of west-end Mississauga.
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“It was an eyesore last night,” the man, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Toronto Sun on Thursday morning. “The flashing lights in the trees, red and blue. ‘What the heck is going on?’”
The man’s comments came after a 19-year-old male was shot by a Toronto Police officer in The Collegeway and Winston Churchill Blvd. area early Thursday morning in Mississauga. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit said the incident happened shortly before 12:30 a.m. after Toronto Police had allegedly tracked the vehicle in connection with a firearms investigation.
Five unmarked police cars were involved in the chase. The remaining occupants of the Mercedes were arrested without incident.
The possible vehicle involved in a shooting incident in Mississauga, Ont., that left a 19-year-old dead at the scene. Toronto Police officers had allegedly been tracking the vehicle in connection with a firearms investigation. Photo by Gordon Anderson /Toronto SunNeeding to know
Curiosity got the better of the 82-year-old man, so he dressed hurriedly and walked about 300 paces to the scene near Council Ring and Delfi Rds.
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The man, originally from South Africa, said there was a crowd at the scene by the time he arrived.
“There was one lady shouting,” he said. “One guy stood next to me and said, ‘I can’t believe it, I spoke to him yesterday.’ He was talking to his friends. I was just listening in.”
He termed the area “lovely” when he moved to Mississauga in the 1970s.
Now he is not so sure.
What does the future hold?
“This sort of behaviour, which is, I suppose, getting bad everywhere … is shocking,” he said. “Every day there is something and you can’t get used to this behaviour. Where are we going? Where is Peel (Region) going with this kind of behaviour? It is just not nice, but you have got to live where you have got to live.”
He mentioned an incident that occurred last week when a resident in the neighbourhood, just “three or four doors down,” was involved with police in some fashion. Other than that, it has been a quiet area.
“I have never seen this before and I have never had a problem in this area,” he said. “This was a very strange and nasty incident, which should not have obviously (happened). The police followed the car and that is where the car stopped. And if it wasn’t for the car stopping there, we might not be speaking about this right now. It is obvious it came from an outside source to our location.”
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He said he has no plans of moving as his life is firmly rooted on this quiet street, but he is concerned about what the future may have in store for the area in terms of big-city crime filtering its way to his location, where well-manicured lawns and leafy trees dot an urban landscape.
“It was an usual case,” he said. “This has always been a great neighbourhood. It scares me because the future doesn’t look too promising in the sense that if this is happening, then my goodness.”
The SIU is urging anyone who may have information about this investigation, including video or photos, to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529.
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