Toronto police have identified a woman who died following a daytime shooting in a busy neighbourhood in the city’s east end on Friday.
The victim has been identified as Karolina Huebner-Makurat, 44, of Toronto, police said in a news release issued Saturday. She was hit by a stray bullet, according to police.
Huebner-Makurat is the 32nd victim of homicide in the city this year, police say.
Just before 12:30 p.m. on Friday police received a call for a shooting in the Queen Street East and Carlaw Avenue area.
Police say there was a physical altercation between three males when two of them took out handguns and shot at each other.
The woman was walking in the area and was struck by a stray bullet, police said. She was transported to hospital where she was later pronounced dead.
On Saturday several members of the Leslieville community left flowers at the spot where Huebner-Makurat was shot and killed.
Joanne Robb, one of the residents who brought flowers, said she did it “just to pay my respects.”
“It’s sad, very sad,” she told CBC Toronto.
‘An assault on our neighborhood’
“This is our neighbourhood and it breaks our heart, it feels like an assault on our neighborhood,” Urmi Desai, another resident, said.
Sarah Deas, one of the last people to see Huebner-Makurat alive, said she ran to help and comfort her.
“At that point nobody was really sure what happened, like whether it was a real gun — somebody thought it was a BB gun,” she told CBC Toronto.
“Soon after they started doing CPR on the woman … it was just like so traumatic and sad.”
Deas said, “I would like there to be more safety measures in various communities, especially Leslieville, but, you know, clearly there’s a lot happening all over the city.”
Police said the suspects fled the area on foot.
Police initially said they were searching for three suspects, but on Saturday said two suspects are still outstanding.
The first suspect is described as a male who is about six feet tall, medium build, and was wearing a white shirt. The second male suspect was wearing a dark t-shirt with floral print and blue jeans.
Police are asking members of the public who have dash cam video or CCTV video from the area to contact investigators. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers.
A Toronto neighbourhood is shaken by a brazen lunch-hour shooting that left a woman, whom police believe was a bystander, dead. Police say three men were in a fight when shots were fired and the woman was hit twice. She was taken to hospital and later died.