Police identify suspect wanted in Toronto mall shooting
Posted August 31, 2018 2:10 pm.
Last Updated August 31, 2018 3:05 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Toronto police have identified a suspect wanted in connection with a shooting at Yorkdale mall on Thursday afternoon.
Officers were called to the mall for the sound of gunshots just before 3:00 p.m. on Thursday. Police say two groups of men were involved in an altercation at the mall and two gunshots were fired, prompting the evacuation of the popular North York shopping centre.
Police say 20-year-old Zion Sankar-Beharry was last seen in the Warden Avenue and Steeles Avenue East area at 5:00 p.m. Thursday. He is considered armed and dangerous.
No one was injuries in the shooting, however paramedics treated three patients for distress and one was transferred to hospital.
Shoppers, workers, return to Toronto mall where shooting took place
While no one was injured in the gunfire Thursday afternoon, the sprawling Toronto facility was shut down as officers combed the area for evidence.
Shoppers and employees returned to the mall on Friday morning, where Lime Pinga, a manager at clothing retailer Maje, said operations appeared to have returned to normal by the morning.
“We are pretty OK,” he said, noting that his supervisor had told workers they could access counselling services through a third-party company if they needed to.
Pinga, who was not at the mall at the time of the shooting, said the team of workers who had been at the store during Thursday’s incident were not working Friday morning.
Several shoppers who had been at the mall at the time of the shooting took to social media to express their gratitude to store workers who had helped them seek shelter.
“A huge shoutout and thanks to the staff of #ladurée at #Yorkdalemall,” Nilab Ferozan tweeted. “Thanks for making us feel calm and safe.”
“Thanks to the employees at @Bose #yorkdalemall for allowing us to hide in their store, keeping calm, sharing information,” Jenna Keane wrote.
Toronto police said they were continuing to ask anyone with information on the shooting to contact them.
Thursday’s incident was the latest in a string of high-profile shootings in the city this year.
In July two people were killed in a rampage in Toronto’s Greektown, a month earlier two young girls were wounded in a shooting at a playground, and days later a woman on her way home from a funeral died in a drive by-shooting police called indicative of a “street gang subculture.”
