Police released surveillance video at a news conference Friday which showed images of two suspects and a getaway vehicle in a shooting that killed a teen at a Weston Road pizza place last Sunday.
Det. Paul Worden described a well-executed and premeditated hit where two armed suspects, a driver and a lookout spotted their targets hanging out at a pizza shop, approached them without being seen, quickly fired on them and fled, all in a matter of minutes.
At about 1:39 a.m., a dark-coloured SUV believed to be a Toyota RAV4 pulled onto a parking lot off of Little Avenue, behind businesses that line Weston Road.
Three males got out of the car and walked east on Weston Road toward a Pizza Pizza shop where 17-year-old Jarryl Hagley was eating with four friends.
Worden said two of the males, one armed with a sawed-off shotgun and another with a handgun, quickly ducked into the pizza shop and fired a total of seven shots, over the course of no more than five seconds.
The third male stood outside the store and acted as a lookout, Worden said.
Hagley was struck in the chest by pellets from the shotgun.
No other people inside the shop were struck.
Hagley then ran to a back washroom to flee from his attackers but collapsed and lost consciousness a short time later. He was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Worden said the suspects then ran back west on Weston Road. All three males were clad in dark clothing. One carried the sawed-off shotgun with the help of a shoulder sling. It appears the shotgun had a pistol-style grip.
“(The suspects) were in some sort of communication to let the vehicle know they were on their way back so he was ready to pick them up,” Worden said.
All three then piled into the SUV and sped off towards Lawrence Avenue.
Police have told CP24 that they believe the shooting was targeted, however a motive in the case has not been disclosed.
“The best we can say is we know that group of people was targeted, and based on who these people turn out to be, that will give us the indication of what the motive is,” Worden said.
He said the shooting may have been sparked by a dispute that has “been going on for the past several months,” and may be connected to several past shootings.
Speaking on Friday, Hagley's aunt, Daisy Hazzard, told CP24 she wants the young men who are behind her nephew’s murder to come forward immediately.
“You may have acted like a beast on the night that you murdered my nephew, but I know that you’re sitting out there, you’re hiding, you’re desperate, you’re fearful and you’re probably wondering what you did. You can’t hide forever - this is Toronto.
“Give yourself up, come forward. Our family is hurting.”
She said she is stunned by the disregard for life shown by the suspects in the surveillance video.
“What set of circumstances would bring a young man to the place where he would think it’s okay to just shoot somebody in cold blood and murder them,” she said.
She said Hagley was “the light of our family.”
When asked if her nephew had ties to gangs, she said he did not have tattoos and did not display any sort of markings indicating he was part of gang, and was probably too busy to be part of one anyways.
“My nephew didn’t have time to be part of a gang,” Hazzard said, saying Hagley often took care of his ailing grandmother, his brothers and other relatives.
But she said he may not have always gravitated to the best crowd.
“I do believe perhaps some of the friends he hung out with weren’t the best friends to hang out with.”
While he couldn’t say if Hagley was the intended target of the assailants, Worden said police believe it was the “group of people who he was sitting with that was targeted.”
Worden said two of the four people sitting with Hagley were known to police and may have been intended targets of the shooting.
Worden said investigators do not yet have surveillance footage from inside the pizza shop, but would not release it if they obtained it.
“It was a very brief and violent interaction. If video is eventually obtained from there and is used in the court process, for the sensitivity of the family, we don’t want to release that at this point,” he said.
Worden said that several minutes before the suspects got out of their getaway car to attack, prior to the shooting, the car was seen near the Pizza Pizza, indicating they were actively searching for Hagley or one of the other four people with him.