2 injured in school shooting
Student, 22-year-old wounded in gunfire in Etobicoke parking lot
By IAN ROBERTSON, TORONTO SUN
Hundreds of students were locked in their classrooms yesterday at a normally quiet Etobicoke high school after gunfire wounded two young men outside.
One victim, an 18-year-old student having a smoke with a pal at Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute on The East Mall, may have been a bystander, police said.
Two men were arrested later. No charges were laid, but Det. James Pike said the investigation is continuing.
30 MINUTES AFTER
A supervisor said Toronto EMS was not alerted to a second victim at the school until 30 minutes after the first ambulance was dispatched for a wounded 22-year-old man.
He said the 22-year-old was shot in his upper leg and taken to Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga by paramedics, who reached the school north of Burnhamthorpe Rd. 10 minutes after the 1:50 p.m. shooting.
The 18-year-old ran back inside after being shot in his left leg and was treated by school staff, Pike said.
School staff could not be reached later for comment.
Pike said the teen and the older man, who is "known to police," were shot in the east parking lot.
The slugs - larger than a .22-calibre -- "went through and through," he said. "At this time, I really don't know who was the intended target," the motive or why the non-student was outside the school, Pike said.
"There is nothing to confirm this is gang-related and nothing to show it isn't."
Both victims were released from hospital early in the evening and had agreed to give statements to police, he said.
"I'm always surprised when there is a shooting at a school," Pike said. "It should be a safe haven."
The detective said he wasn't aware of any recent serious trouble at the school.
Three bullet casings were found in the parking lot and only one gun was involved, Pike said.
Two cars reported to have fled the school were seized by police, who were trying to determine if they were involved.
Over loudspeakers, "the principal was telling everybody to sit down and close the doors," said a 19-year-old student, who didn't want her name used.
"He just said there was a shooting at the school, but nobody was shooting at us," the Grade 12 student said.
She said "a lot of people were thinking" about the man who fatally shot five Amish girls Monday, then himself, in Pennsylvania.
When Burnhamthorpe's principal issued the alert, students pulled out cellphones to call parents and pals, the student said.
Cutty Duncan, 37, a youth worker with the Rathburn Area Youth Project, said he hoped the gunfire would not deter students from participating in programs.
'MAKE PROGRESS'
"There's a lot of good kids here and more moving into the neighbourhood," he said, after learning his evening classes were cancelled. "We want to continue the work we are doing and make progress in the community."
Reporters were not allowed into the school, but Michael Hill, the Toronto District School Board safe schools administrator, said students were allowed to leave 70 minutes after the shooting.
Nearby West Glen Public School was also locked down "as a routine precaution."
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