A grocery store clerk was days away from leaving his job when he was shot and killed outside the east-end shop on Thursday night, CTV News has learned.

Hou Chang Mao, a 47-year-old husband and father of two, quit on Tuesday, but was asked by his boss to stay on until the weekend, family and friends told CTV's Jim Junkin.

Mao didn't want to continue working in the outdoor vegetable section because it was too cold, Junkin reported.

Mao was hit by a stray bullet during a gun battle between at least two shooters on Gerrard Street, near Broadview Avenue, over the dinner hour on Thursday. He died from a bullet wound to the torso.

Officers are poring over security footage taken from the area in search of the suspects.

Mao 23-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter did not speak to the media on Saturday. Their father was described as a hard-working, honest man.

The community has begun raising money to bring Mao's wife from China and to help pay for the funeral.

Layton joins call for handgun ban

Meanwhile, federal NDP Leader Jack Layton has joined Toronto Mayor David Miller's campaign for an absolute ban of handguns following the fatal shooting in his riding.

Layton toured the area in his Toronto-Danforth riding on Saturday where Mao was killed while stacking oranges.

"We are shocked and saddened by the latest wave of handgun violence on our neighbourhood streets," Layton said on Saturday, standing at the corner of Gerrard and Broadview. "It is time for all levels of government to work together and deal with this crisis once and for all."

Layton said the federal government has been "inadequate to protect our streets and our families," and he said there is no justification for allowing residents to be able to walk down the street with a handgun in their waistband.

Layton unveiled a five-point plan to curb gun violence on Saturday. In addition to the handgun ban, the NDP wants:

  • The Conservative government to honour its election promise to hire 2,500 new police officers
  • Canada's witness protection programs strengthened to ensure more people, especially youth, come forward with information on gun crimes
  • Long-term and stable funding for successful youth safety and crime prevention programs
  • A Canada-U.S. summit of lawmakers and law enforcement to stop the flow of illegal handguns being smuggled into Canada

The NDP has also called for mandatory minimum sentences for people who use a firearm in the commission of a crime.

Ban unlikely: Day

Miller renewed his call for a ban on handguns on Friday following the city's second shooting death of an innocent bystander in less than a week.

"We can choose to act," Miller said at a press conference on Friday. "We can choose to say handguns are so dangerous and kill uninvolved people that we're going to close the loopholes in our law and end the ownership of handguns in this country."

The mayor called the two recent slayings "absolute tragedies" that could have been prevented with better gun laws. He said a significant portion of guns used in crimes are stolen from gun owners, and another significant portion came from the U.S.

Miller also urged the federal government to spend more on preventing the flow of illegal guns across the border.

However, later Friday, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day ruled out a total ban on handguns, saying the weapons were already effectively banned.

"You don't make headway against firearm crime by going against innocent firearm owners," Day told The Canadian Press.

Day said a more effective response would be to establish mandatory jail sentences for people who commit gun crimes -- a move he said has been opposed by other federal parties.

The minister also said the Conservative government has increased funding to stop smuggling at the border and they are "well on our way" to hiring 1,000 RCMP officers.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Jim Junkin