'AN ORGANIZED CRIME GANG WAR'

Police are urging residents to be on the lookout for any suspicious
activity in their neighbourhoods after gunfire erupted outside a
marijuana grow house in northwest Scarborough early Sunday.

"This is an organized crime gang war," Staff Insp. Gary Ellis, unit
commander of the homicide squad, told reporters Wednesday morning when
he revealed that a weekend murder on Wellpark Boulevard was the result
of a gunfight between competing gangs.

Ellis warned that Toronto could become like Chicago in the 1920s when
organized crime gangs were shooting up the streets fighting one
another unless the country's "lax legislation" on marijuana is addressed.

"This person was shot and killed protecting a marijuana grow
operation," he said of the 22-year-old Chinese victim who came to
Canada on a student visa about three years ago.

Ellis said police are still trying to locate the deceased's next of
kin in China.

He told reporters the young man had no address, no means of supporting
himself and no family here in Canada.

"He was a soldier. He was running back to this house to protect the
commodity," Ellis said. "We believe he was armed as well and he is now
dead."

A second man, aged 21, was also shot. He remains in hospital and is
expected to recover.

Ellis said there were two separate groups involved in the shooting
Sunday, one that was running the grow operation and the other that
attempted to rob the house.

"This is a very dangerous situation where we're very concerned that
it's going to erupt in a cycle of violence where we will end up with
many people killed on our streets," Ellis said.

He reported there were 13 "combatants" involved in the incident,
including five robbers who were attempting to steal the pot.

The robbers triggered an alarm and eight others showed up to defend
the property, including the man who died.

"As soon as they arrived on scene they were blasted by gun fire,"
Ellis said. "There's enough weapons here to arm an army and the
scariest thing out of this is bullets were flying that penetrated the
wall of houses across the street."

Ellis said an elderly couple narrowly escaped being hit by stray
bullets, which penetrated the wall of their bedroom.

He also said that had officers arrived on scene during the shooting
spree, they "would have been met with a hail of gunfire.

"It is a very dangerous situation. It's organized crime. It's
international and the concern again is we have these grow houses
popping up all over our city," Ellis said.

He reported two men are wanted in connection with an Oct. 7 shooting
related to a grow house in downtown Toronto.

He also said $2.5 million worth of marijuana plants were seized at an
industrial unit at 5621 Finch Ave. E. in Scarborough just last week.

"We need a public awareness of the seriousness of this crime," Ellis
said. "We need everyone to be aware it's organized crime and that it
poses a significant risk to people in the area from house fires from
the electricity being bypassed, from the gunfire."

The police are asking the public to be aware in their
communities.

In an interview Thursday he said grow houses are typically boarded up,
including the windows.

"If cars are coming and going at all times and nobody seems to be
residing there, that's a huge clue," he said, noting grow operations
are not run by one particular cultural group.

"We're seeing this as an emerging trend," he told the
media.

Ellis would not comment specifically on the nature of the weapons used
in the incident, saying only there were firearms, machetes and clubs.

"The whole range to have a war on a nice residential street where
people were sleeping on a Sunday morning," he said.

Area resident Ali Shah said his wife Wajeeha awoke to the sounds of
gunfire.

"She came from an area (in Pakistan) where she constantly heard
gunshots," he said, adding his wife was surprised to hear the familiar
sound on their residential street.

"My wife was sleeping and she heard two shots around 6:30 a.m. They
were about 30 seconds apart," he said. "By 8 a.m. there was a bunch of
people out front. Everything was closed off."

Shah said his family has lived in their Wellpark Boulevard home for
almost 20 years.

"We know pretty much everybody up and down the street," he said.
"Right here we're pretty close knit."

Shah said there are a lot of elderly people in the neighbourhood,
which has seen its share of police activity in recent months.

He reported a neighbour's house had been robbed twice recently and
said another nearby home was raided for marijuana this past summer.

"This was kind of unexpected," he said of the shooting Sunday. "The
area is getting pretty bad."

Anyone with information in relation to the murder is asked to contact
the homicide squad at 416-808-7400 or CrimeStoppers at 416-222-TIPS.