Police in Toronto are hoping the release of surveillance camera footage will lead investigators to a suspect involved in deadly daylight shooting in Etobicoke earlier this week.
Shortly before noon on Monday, officers were called the Kipling Avenue and Longfield Road area after a car veered off the roadway, slammed into a fence and spun onto the lawn of a home.
Police and paramedics arrived to find the driver of the vehicle had been shot and was without vital signs.
The victim, later identified as 38-year-old Christopher Reid, was rushed to a trauma centre in critical condition. He later died.
Det. Leslie Dunkley said newly obtained surveillance camera footage shows the victim’s vehicle trailing behind the suspect’s vehicle near Highway 27 and Eglinton Avenue prior to the shooting.
The video shows both vehicles then turn left onto Lloyd Manor Road and then right onto Longfield Road.
“Whether he just happened to be going in the same direction or not, it’s hard to say,” Dunkley told reporters at a news conference on Friday. “What we know is there was about a 12-14 second gap between the victim vehicle and the suspect vehicle.”
When the alleged gunman’s vehicle came to a sudden stop in the middle of the road, Reid pulled up alongside it.
Dunkley said there was “a pause” before the suspect opened fire.
“The shots came from the driver’s side of the suspect vehicle, through the passenger side of the victim’s vehicle,” he said.
“There are several reports from different witnesses about the number of shots that were fired. I can tell you that there were multiple.”
Dunkley said Reid drove a short distance on Longfield Road before losing control of the vehicle. It came to a stop about 150 metres away from where the shooting took place.
Investigators aren’t sure whether Reid was intentionally following the gunman’s vehicle but Dunkley said they’re working to piece together everything that led up to that moment.
“We do know where he was intended to go. We know where he was coming from,” he said. “There are some time gaps in between there which we can’t account for at this time, we’re still investigating.”
Now, police are trying to locate the “distinctive” vehicle being driven by the alleged gunman.
It’s described as a white, newer model, four-door BMW X6.
Dunkley said officers will be reaching out to registered owners of that particular model of BMW as part of the investigation.
“The suspect vehicle is very identifiable,” Dunkley said. “So we’re hoping that someone remembers or their memory can be jogged in terms of witnessing the actual incident. As you can see in the video there are several cars in and around the vehicle.”
He said it’s “hard to say” whether or not Reid was targeted but acknowledged that he was “known to police.”
“I don’t believe this has anything to do with the neighbourhood itself,” Dunkley said. “There’s no evidence at this time to indicate that our victim was attending an address in that particular neighborhood, so as to why he took that route is unbeknownst to us.”
Anyone with information about the investigation is being asked to call Toronto police or Crime Stoppers.
Police are also asking anyone who spotted or is familiar with the victim’s vehicle – a black, four-door 2017 model Hyundai Elantra – to contact them.
