#MicroblogMondays: Too close for comfort

There is far less gun violence in Canada than there is in the U.S. -- but unfortunately, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. 

Dh & I were out of the house (for a change!) on Thursday afternoon, at a drugstore about 2 km (a mile-plus) down the road from our condo building. Dh requested a prescription refill from the pharmacy counter, and then went out to the car to wait for it while I picked up a few things inside.  Shortly after 2 p.m., sirens began to wail -- and kept wailing, as police cars and other emergency vehicles sped past, one after another after another. 

"Something's going on," dh remarked as I returned to the car with my purchases, and yet another police car zoomed by, sirens wailing. 

As we headed home down that same road (a major thoroughfare hereabouts), about half an hour later, we could see flashing lights ahead, and realized the major intersection closest to our condo was completely blocked off -- there was no way we were going to be able to drive straight through to get to our building. We were able to make a right turn there, though, and wound up driving through the back roads, parking on a nearby side street and walking home. (Dh went back outside about an hour later to see if the roadblock had been lifted -- it had. He retrieved the car and brought it back to our parking garage.)  

As we drove by, we could see a black sportscar in the parking lot outside one of the office buildings near the corner (this one housing a bank and a physiotherapist's office) -- just a few hundred yards/metres from our building -- literally a 2-3 minute walk away. The top was covered by a tarp and it was surrounded by police tape and orange cones. Dh knew at a glance that it was a brand new Porsche Turbo convertible. I couldn't count all the emergency vehicles and police officers on site, but there were a LOT. 

Once home, I turned on the 24-hour local news channel on TV and started Googling to see if I could find out anything. Meanwhile, I could hear and see helicopters outside, circling around the area. Eventually, we learned that a man in his 40s had been shot in his car (the Porsche), shortly after 2 p.m., and taken to hospital in serious condition;  the suspect or suspects got away in another car. Friday afternoon, an edited (fuzzy) security camera video was released, showing the other car was a white Honda or Acura. 

My guess is this probably had something to do with drugs, gangs and/or organized crime.  Also a possibility:  there's been a big increase in the number of carjackings around the city recently, with expensive cars (like Porsches) among the primary targets (and there are a LOT of expensive cars on the road in this community). A Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player was the victim of a carjacking outside a movie theatre a few weeks ago. 

This is a very busy corner (lots of traffic) and busy cluster of medical and office buildings, directly across the street from a busy rapid bus transit stop -- thank goodness no one else was hurt by a stray bullet or the fleeing getaway car!  It was obviously a targeted hit.(versus a nut with a gun shooting people at random). 

Still -- a little too close to home for comfort...

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.