Hours after the fatal shooting at a popular salsa festival in Toronto, community members are reeling from the incident and speaking out on what they experienced on Saturday evening.
Shortly after 8 p.m. gunfire erupted at the Salsa on St. Clair festival, leaving two men dead and sending four others to hospital with gunshot wounds, said Toronto police.
Police say no arrests have been made and they are still investigating how many people were involved, as well as if there are any outstanding suspects.
For Coun. Josh Matlow, the Toronto city councillor for the Toronto-St. Paul’s ward, it was “surreal” to watch the festival go from people dancing to being shut down hours later by dozens of police officers.
“What was this fun animated space just hours before, was a crime scene right in the heart of our community,” he said on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air Sunday morning.
St. Clair Avenue W. was eerily quiet on Sunday, littered with garbage, bright yellow evidence markers and even a few abandoned slippers.
There were signs of a hasty retreat as food containers were left half-eaten and vendors’ tents were still up, partially covered in tarps.
The two-day salsa festival was cancelled on Sunday as police tape lined the streets to maintain road closures between Arlington Avenue and Winona Drive on St. Clair Avenue W.
Salsa in Toronto, the group that organized the event, said on social media that its thoughts were with the families of the victims and “everyone affected by this senseless violence.”
Toronto resident Lindsey Petrus said she was outside when “a sea of people” suddenly rushed into her cul-de-sac.
She said she “immediately clicked into first-aid mode” to help people who had been injured while running from the scene, including two teenage girls who had been trampled.
Neighbours brought out water, offered people their cellphones to contact loved ones and tried to comfort those separated from family members, she said.
“There were people who were actually vomiting because they were so anxious and worked up,” Petrus said. “One girl was calling her mom just crying, saying, ‘Mommy, I want to go home.’ It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Residents react after Toronto festival shooting leaves 2 dead, multiple injured
Cergio Maldonado was working at the Taco Love station close to the scene when he heard three shots ring out, followed by two more and crowds of people running seconds later.
He said it was “creepy” that people went back to the scene minutes later to record what was happening on their phones.
Butcher shop Macelleria Atlas on St. Clair Avenue housed several residents moments after shots rang out, said owner Angela Mazza.
Her mother, Anna Maria, said the store has been part of the community for over 60 years and has partaken in the festival since 2005. She teared up as she spoke of the impact Saturday’s event would have on people.
“It’s beautiful to be part of [the community],” she said. “We did our best. We did.”
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But Mazza said she’s reconsidering participating in the festival next year and questions if it should return at all after the shooting.
“This moment kind of just crushed it for us … We just don’t feel protected,” she said, adding more people were drinking at the event compared to previous years and that there should have been more of a police presence at the festival.
Mazza said the suspects behind the shooting “ruined” the festival for everybody in the community.
Toronto police say 2 men dead, multiple injured at Salsa on St. Clair festival
Witnesses, residents recount aftermath of Toronto festival shooting that left 2 dead, multiple people injured
Matlow said people can’t allow feelings of fear or anger to change things moving forward. Instead, the focus should be on how to make these events even safer.
“I don’t believe that we should just be shutting down a free society and the happiness of our lives because these criminals have done what they’ve done,” he said.
He said there’s been an enormous amount of work to ensure festival safety after the Lapu-Lapu Day tragedy in Vancouver last year.
He said there was a lot of security and barriers to prevent vehicles from entering the festival’s pedestrian area. Going forward, Matlow said the city would have to look into how to prevent shootings at future festivals.
Matlow added he’ll be planning a community meeting in the days ahead to help residents process and discuss next steps once investigators determine what exactly happened.
