'THE SHOOTING WAS NOT A UNIQUE SITUATION, AND THAT'S DISTRESSING'

In wake of Yonge St. gunplay, Fantino worries about violence, weapons in
this 'very fragile city'

The shooting followed the pattern of so many others. Two groups of young
men in an altercation, a gun is pulled, someone is shot and no one saw
anything.

It's a scene that police and youth workers have been warning will become
more common in the city, as guns become more available and the bonds and
rivalries between gangs strengthen.

What made Wednesday's Yonge St. shooting different from other recent
incidents, which have often occurred in isolated parks or on residential
street corners, were the throngs of screaming teenagers lining up for an
autograph session for pop band 'N Sync only metres away from the crime scene.

"People have to come to realize that we have very serious issues to deal
with in Toronto with the degree of violence, the use of weapons and the
victimization of people. It should worry all of us," Toronto police Chief
Julian Fantino said in an interview yesterday.

"The shooting was not a unique situation, and that's distressing," Fantino
said. "And this was on the picture post-card street of Toronto in broad
daylight."

Detectives investigating the shooting believe the incident was part of a
larger war downtown.

"There are definitely two different factions right now fighting for the
control of the distribution of drugs at the raves in the area," said 52
Division street crime Detective Colin McDonald.

Witnesses have told police that two groups of men were talking across the
street from the 'N Sync autograph session when one man struck the
27-year-old victim on the head with a gun. He then shot the man in the leg
before running away.

As everyone involved fled, the injured man was put in a car with two other
men and driven to St. Michael's Hospital, where he was dumped off before
the car sped away.

Detectives say the victim is unco-operative and claims he didn't know
either the driver of the car that brought him to the hospital or the
shooting suspect.

No arrests have yet been made.

In the last two months, many violent gun incidents have occurred downtown.

Christopher Palmer, a bouncer at the Web bar on Yonge St. north of
Wellesley, was shot and killed on Valentine's Day. On March 4, less than a
block from the Web, another bouncer, 32-year-old Andrew Robotham, died at
the Spin Cat club, on Isabella St. at Yonge St., after two men in a group
of three refused to allow him to conduct a body search.

Two days after that incident, dozens of officers flooded the area after
reports that four men armed with at least one handgun barged into a Toronto
dance club a few blocks away from Spin Cat.

Earlier in the month, police responded to a call from a restaurant at
Gloucester and Yonge Sts. Five men in the washroom were involved in a fight
and two gunshots were fired. No one was reported injured.

Police acknowledge many of this year's gun and drug-related incidents can
be blamed on two large rival gangs which are gaining a stronghold in the city.

Two years ago, police began tracking the members of the growing Bloods and
Crips groups in Toronto - fashioned after ruthless rival American gangs.

The Bloods and Crips originally began in the late 1960s. A group of black
Americans in southeast Los Angeles gained a brutal reputation by
terrorizing neighbourhoods.

They called themselves the Crips.

Farther west, in Compton, Calif., others began to retaliate, and called
themselves the Bloods.

By the late 1980s these gangs - identified by blue bandanas or clothing for
Crips and red for Bloods - were responsible for drive-by shootings and
vicious gang wars.

"If something isn't done and youths carry along the same lines, they will
become involved in larger gangs, more powerful gangs . . . and it will be a
massive problem," Staff Sergeant Chuck Perry said in a November, 1998,
presentation to the Toronto Police Services Board, noting the presence of
the Bloods and Crips gangs.

McDonald said this prediction has come true.

"The gangs have become more structured and definitely have struck more
alliances now," he said yesterday.

But the gun and gang violence has not been restricted to the downtown area.

It is surfacing in schools and various neighbourhoods.

Just yesterday, police converged on Mimico Ave., east of Royal York Rd., at
lunch hour after they were notified that a young boy had been seen running
down the street with a handgun.

A mother was walking her children home for lunch when she heard a youngster
calling out to another: "Give me the gun!"

"When she turned around, she saw an 11-or-12-year-old boy run by with a gun
in his hand," said Constable Oleh Kupraty of 21 Division on Islington Ave.

The boy was found a short while later on his way back to school, carrying a
toy that resembled a semi-automatic pistol.

The youngster, who said he had purchased the gun in a local variety store,
wasn't charged but is facing suspension from school.

Fantino lashed out yesterday at provincial and federal government officials
who he said are "totally discounting the problem of these types of guns,"
referring to starter's pistols and imitation weapons that resemble real
handguns.

Both types of weapons have been used in a rash of high-profile crimes
recently, including a converted starter's pistol allegedly fired by one of
the suspects during a gunfight in the parking lot of Emery Collegiate
Institute last month which left three injured.

"There's a lot of denial going on," Fantino said.

"Toronto is on the forefront of being the greatest city in the world, but
it's also a vulnerable city and it's a very fragile city."

He said he hopes the joint task force involving police, fire officials,
bylaw inspectors, building and zoning officials, which will crack down on
the city's raves, will help control the drug and violence issues.