People hug following Saturday’s shooting. (REUTERS)
TORONTO — Police in Toronto were searching for a gunman who opened fire in a shopping mall Saturday evening, killing one person.
The shooting occurred about 6:20 p.m. local time in the food court of the downtown Eaton Centre, local TV news channel CP24 reported.
The person killed was a 25-year-old man, police said.
A 13-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man are in critical condition in the hospital, both with gunshot wounds, The Globe and Mail reported.
Two women and a man were also rushed to the hospital and were in serious condition. All were suffering gunshot wounds.
A pregnant woman went into labor after being caught up in the stampede for the exits after the shooting. Two other people were injured in the stampede.
Police said they had completed a search of the Eaton Centre and the shooter was still at large, CP24 reported.
A description of the suspect will be released after police had finished viewing the mall’s surveillance video and interviewing witnesses, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said.
He said it was not a random shooting.
“The injuries to the man who was killed suggest that he was the targeted victim of this shooting, but there are a number of other people who were clearly innocent bystanders going about their daily lives,” Blair told reporters at the scene late Saturday night.
One of the first reports of the shooting came via Twitter from Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie, who was inside the mall at the time.
“Pretty sure someone just let off a round bullets in eaton center mall .. Wow just sprinted out of the mall … Through traffic …,” Lawrie tweeted.
He also posted photos of police vehicles at the scene.
Marcus Neves-Polonio, a 19-year-old busser at the food court, told The Globe and Mail he saw a man take out a gun and start firing. Neves-Polonio said he saw one person get shot in the chest.
He described the scene as “mayhem” as people ran for the doors, Neves-Polonio said.
The Eaton Centre is the largest shopping mall in downtown Toronto and police said it was packed with thousands of people at the time of the shooting.