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People attend a vigil for healing that was organized after the fatal shooting at Toronto’s Salsa on St. Clair street festival on July 11.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
In the minutes after gunfire broke out at a Toronto street festival last week, a young woman was seen walking unsteadily toward an ambulance, her outstretched arms held by a paramedic. Her white dress was streaked with blood.
She had been among the revellers at the Salsa on St. Clair festival, a summer weekend party that for years has featured hundreds of people dancing together in the street. In an instant, that evening was shattered by gunfire that left two men dead, the young woman and four others wounded and the city of Toronto shaken.
In the aftermath, political leaders including Mayor Olivia Chow condemned the reckless violence that put so many at risk and threw the festival’s future into question.
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw urged the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to ensure that fatal shootings in crowded places result in an automatic charge of first-degree murder.
Deadly shooting at Toronto’s Salsa on St. Clair festival sparks demands for solutions
The St. Clair shooting, like other landmark shootings in Toronto that have occurred in public places, is likely to resonate for years as both a personal tragedy and a political issue. It’s the kind of incident that rattles a city’s sense of safety and security, Mr. Demkiw added. He said that although shootings in Toronto are down by 26 per cent this year, the statistics mean little to those whose lives have been forever changed.
“Events like this need to serve as a reckoning,” Mr. Demkiw said.
Shondelle Reis recognized the young woman in white from the images that circulated on social media. The woman had attended a program Ms. Reis launched after she lost her own 21-year-old son to a random shooting in 2023.
Ms. Reis hurried this week to Sunnybrook hospital to visit the young woman as she recovered from treatment. She said the journey brought back memories of the death of her son, Joshua Bernard-Reis, who was shot outside the family home in Scarborough in what police described as a random, unprovoked attack.
Ms. Reis, who attended a vigil for the shooting victims at St. Matthew’s United Church on St. Clair earlier this week, said the young woman has been discharged from hospital and is recovering, but has been through a terrible ordeal.
“It’s a difficult trauma, dealing with the aftermath of a shooting,” Ms. Reis said.
The Globe is not naming the young woman, who declined an interview request, because she has not been publicly identified by police.
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Toronto Police hold back festivalgoers as they begin to investigate the shooting last Saturday.Keito Newman/The Canadian Press
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Mayor Olivia Chow speaks to reporters on the night of the shooting.Keito Newman/The Canadian Press
Police have said that the two men killed, Shaquan Quashie, 25, and Cesar Vernaza, 20, knew one another and were victims of a targeted shooting. Police have not identified any of those who were injured, though the police chief said the injured included bystanders unconnected to the confrontation. They have not yet announced any arrests.
Mr. Quashie and Mr. Vernaza both resided in Pelham Park Gardens, a neighbourhood about three kilometres from the site of the shooting.
A memorial to Mr. Quashie has gone up outside his mother’s home, including a photo of him in graduation regalia accompanied by messages of condolence. His mother declined an interview, saying she did not want to compromise a police investigation that she hoped would capture those responsible for her son’s death.
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The nearby home of one of Mr. Vernaza’s relatives was also in mourning.
In January of this year, Mr. Vernaza was being sentenced for possession of a stolen car in a Toronto court. Justice Michael Block urged him not to throw away his future.
“My object is to scare you enough – that’s called personal deterrence – so you don’t go anywhere near this again. So that you have a real life in front of you,” the judge said.
Rather than issue a suspended sentence, which the Crown was seeking, the judge gave Mr. Vernaza a conditional discharge, so that he would not have a criminal conviction that would limit his future. He told him instead to pursue his dream of a job in the trades and released him with strict conditions that, if breached, would land him in jail.
“Please don’t make that part of your future,” the judge said. “You will have wasted this opportunity. It is a massive opportunity.”
Dozens of people gathered at the vigil at St. Matthew’s United Church to mourn the lives lost as well as to pray for those hurt in Saturday’s shooting.
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People embrace at this week’s vigil.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Pastor Jenni Feheley, one of the faith leaders at the vigil, said she hopes local residents will respond by helping young people create meaning in their lives.
“We’ve got to create things so that our kids know that they’re actually needed, not just tolerated,” Ms. Feheley said. “They need to know someone’s looking out for them.”
The future of the Salsa on St. Clair festival, which has run for more than two decades and attracted as many as 13,000 people last week, is now up in the air. It began as an effort to celebrate Latin culture and drum up interest in local businesses that suffered during the construction of a dedicated streetcar track. But it’s not clear how local businesses and residents feel after this shooting. Ms. Chow has said she will not allow reckless criminals to interfere with the city’s tradition of outdoor street festivals.
City Councillor Josh Matlow said he joined area business owners at a meeting this week and opinion was divided. Constituents have raised concerns about the size of the festival, he said, and there have been incidents of violence and disorder in previous years.
“Residents have raised real concerns,” Mr. Matlow said. “When this most awful tragedy happened a lot of that conversation increased.”
Aldo Di Felice, president of Salsa on St. Clair organizer TLN Media Group, said a roundtable planned for Monday with policymakers will discuss issues arising from the shooting.
With a report from Colin Freeze