Teen killed in Lawrence Heights shooting
[attach]2926[/attach]A shooting in the troubled Lawrence Heights neighbourhood has claimed the life of a teenage boy. Police say he was probably 16 or 17.
The shooting occurred around 3:55 p.m. at 135 Neptune Dr., one of three buildings in a Community Housing complex just southeast of Allen Road and the 401. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators were still on the scene at 7 p.m. trying to piece together the shooting, which took place in a side door exit from the building. Police have not released the victim’s name pending notification of the family. They were also mum on details of suspects so far.
Residents who live in any of the buildings that are a part of the Toronto Community Housing block of 135, 145 and 155 Neptune Dr. had to be ushered into their buildings by police, who had taped off almost the entire block.
Many residents were overheard saying they think it’s time to find a new neighbourhood to move to, including David Spiegel, a lifelong resident of the community, who says he and his family hear gunshots about once a month on average.
“I’ve heard machine gun fire. It’s all coming from the community housing,” he said. “It’s not for me to say (what should be done about the violence), it’s for the government’s to come up with a solution, but the status quo is obviously not working. A poor 16 year old kid is now dead.”
Living directly across the street with his balcony facing the scene of the crime, Spiegel says he now wants to take his wife and two young daughters and move out of the city as soon as they can, because nothing is being done to stop the violence.
“My main issue is with councillor (Howard) Moscoe completely ignoring this,” he said, referencing numerous unanswered emails he sent to the outgoing councillor. “I’m frustrated more than anything. It’s terrible that there’s all this crime and it’s a waste of police resources having to continuously deal with this.”
[attach]2927[/attach]This is the same neighbourhood where the Town Crier recently reported [url=http://www.mytowncrier.ca/gun-crimes-in-lawrence-heights.html]a surge in gun-related crimes[/url], starting with a shooting death on Cather Crescent in late August. The victim in that shooting, Randy Anthony Malcolm, had been a suspect in an attempted murder in a 2008 shooting near the same complex where this most recent murder took place.
Do you feel safe in your neighbourhood? Let us know through the Town Crier‘s latest [url=https://streeter.ca/after-the-most-recent-shooting-death-in-lawrence-heights-are-you-concerned-about-the-level-of-violence-in-your-neighbourhoodth.html]online poll[/url].
If Moscoe and his corporate developer puppet masters get away with LARP, this will magnify the problem x7.
Since drug trade & gang/gun violence won’t disappear any time soon, the way I see it, we have 2 options:
Option A: Privatize TCHC and make them an “accountable landlord” for any mishaps on their property. This would force them to be more proactive about security and not to admit any residents with a criminal record and immediately evict any convicted felons.
Option B: Create one massive reinforced “dodge-city” (Regent Pk. sounds good to me) for all those disturbed folks to live surrounded by bullet-proof ghetto walls. Let them unload their bullet disputes there so we can all get on with our quiet lives.
I think we can all agree, that the current status quo with all these TCH pockets throughout the city has been a big failure. Spreading the pain, just make many more citizens miserable.
Moscoe said increasing density would decrease crime, but it does not really make sense. Increasing density may decrease the crime-rate (i.e. crimes committed per 1000 people) but the over-all number of crimes will increase. So Moscoe’s claim was really just political double-speak.
The current re-development plans for increasing the density 6-fold will just increase the current problems, and must be stopped and completely reworked. Residents in and around the area will not benefit from having tens of thousands more people packed in to the area like sardines.
This murder, tragically, is not unique or unusual. Toronto Community Housing Corporation employees from management down to custodians are indifferent, incompetent and indolent. The Police are helpless to enforce law, fight gangs ‘n guns and combat the flourishing drug trade. Howard Moscoe’s legacy in pushing the Lawrence Allen Revitalization Plan (LARP) through preliminary approval regardless of the facts on the ground, will result in exponential increases in gangs ‘n guns, drug trade and murders. We must stop LARP to rethink and reshape its deeply flawed concept immediately. That is only the first step.