Two people dead after shooting at park north of Toronto: YRP

Two people are dead following an early-morning shooting at a park in a quiet neighbourhood in Keswick, York Regional Police say.

Police confirmed just before 11 a.m. that they were investigating a double homicide at Bayview Park.

YRP said they responded to the sounds of gunshots at the park just before 7:30 a.m.  

"When officers arrived in the area, they located two adult victims in Bayview Park suffering from gunshot wounds. They were pronounced deceased at the scene," police said in a release.

Images from the scene showed officers and a number of police vehicles at the entrance to the park Wednesday morning.

Police set up a perimeter from Doverdale Drive to the south, Bayview Avenue and The Queensway to the northwest and Fairwood Drive to the east.

"Our Homicide Unit is engaged and are treating this as an isolated incident," police said. "There is no immediate threat to the public."

Police said they are looking to identify a suspect or suspects in the case, but there is no suspect information so far.

Several schools in the area were placed under a hold and secure order as police investigate, though the schools themselves are not part of the incident.

"Schools in the Keswick area are currently in a hold & secure," The York Region District School Board said in a post on X. "This is due to police activity in the area & not related to any incident in the school. Everyone in the building is safe."

Police are asking people to avoid the area as they investigate. They are also appealing to anyone with information to come forward.

"Investigators are asking anyone who was in the area at the time, or lives in the neighbourhood, to please check their security cameras and dashcam footage," YRP said.

They said next-of-kin have not yet been notified and there will be no further details about the victims for the time being.

 

Neighbours shaken

Neighbours in the area who spoke to CP24 said they are shocked to see a double homicide in their normally quiet community, which is comprised of many people with young kids and retirees.

"When I heard the noise, I thought it's a car backfiring. It has to be," said one woman who gave her name as Mari.

She said it's "creepy" to know that two people died just steps away from her house and said the killings are making her think of moving.

"I used to live downtown at Yonge and Wellesley (streets), and we had a lot of shots in the back alley, but I thought, 'not here.' I mean, this just doesn't happen here," she said.

Ben Borup said he would normally have been walking his dogs through the park where the shooting happened at that time of morning.  

"(I)decided actually to sleep in a little bit longer this morning and heard four loud gunshots," he said. "I thought for a minute it might be duck hunting, which is done at the lake just over there, but then I realized it's probably not duck hunting. And then shortly after, there was another three shots."

He added that the shootings "are a little unnerving" and that he has never seen anything like this nearby.

"It's a good neighborhood. I mean, I've lived here for six years. I have other neighbors that have been here for 20-plus years – they've never seen anything like this," Borup said.

Other neighbours said the shooting has left them shaken.  

"It's definitely super scary. Most of us raise our children up in this area, so to have such a horrific thing happen is definitely shaking for the whole community," one woman who identified herself as Tina said.

-      With a report from CP24 Reporter Steve Ryan