AHMAD o@ca.on.simcoe_county.orillia.the_packet× 2005-10-13 published
Body found downtown
By Amy LAZAR,
Thursday,
October 13, 2005
Yellow tape secured a downtown corner for more than 14 hours
yesterday after a 38-year-old Stratford man was found dead on
the concrete outside the
OLCO gas bar.
A cab driver from A&A Taxi noticed a man lying unconscious at
the gas station around 3 a.m., said Henry
MacDONALD, a night
dispatcher for the company.
MacDONALD phoned the Ontario Provincial Police.
Police arrived on the scene and found a man with no vital signs.
Police said the man was transported to Soldiers' Memorial Hospital,
where he was pronounced dead.
Calling the death suspicious, police released few details about
the incident.
The
Packet has learned the dead man is Liam
BROADMORE, 38, of
Stratford.
BROADMORE was heading home after spending Thanksgiving weekend
at a family cottage near head Lake, about 30 kilometres east
of Washago, a source told The Packet.
Yesterday, police roped off the corner of Peter and Colborne
streets before dawn.
Around 9 a.m., the yellow police tape that ran across Peter Street
at Mississaga Street was moved closer to the Colborne Street
intersection.
A few businesses on Peter Street remained closed for the day.
The RBC
Financial
Group was open but the drive-thru was blocked
off.
The OLCO gas station has been closed for business since Tuesday
at 10 p.m.
“It's a tragedy for everyone in town,” said the owner of the
gas bar, Arfan
AHMAD, from his home yesterday.
He found out about the investigation from his employee, who showed
up to open the station at 6 a.m.
“I was shocked to hear that she couldn't open the store,” said
AHMAD.
After receiving that phone call, he went to see for himself.
A black Ford Explorer with purple and white markings on the side,
believed to be the victim's vehicle, was parked on the gas bar
property.
Police marked a pool of blood and a red and black jacket, which
were on the ground, close to the car's front bumper, as evidence.
There were 17 evidence markers at the blocked-off corner.
Eight Ontario Provincial Police officers surrounded the perimeter,
reminding people to stay back from the scene and redirecting
traffic.
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AHMAD o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-01-07 published
BALTZAN,
Dr.
Marcel
Alter, O.C., S.O.M., B.Sc., M.D.C.M., F.R.C.P.C.,
M.A.C.P., D.Sc.
October 31, 1929-January 1, 2005 Died peacefully in his sleep
after a valiant battle with heart disease. He is survived by
his loving wife, Nahid
AHMAD, his children, Marc Jr. (Lisa,)
Frances,
Elizabeth,
Zeba Ahmad (Jawed
AKHTAR,) his grandchildren,
Faraaz, Sakeena, Alexandre, Isabel and Margo, his brother, Richard
(Nancy,) his cousin, Ronald (Arda,) his sister-in-law, Joan
BALTZAN
and nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents, David
and Rose BALTZAN and brother Donald. Marc attended Victoria School
& Nutana Collegiate. He then obtained his medical education at
McGill University, graduating in 1953. He further trained at
Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. He returned to Saskatoon
in 1959 to set up a private practice with his father and later
his brothers, Donald and Richard. Dr. Marc will always be remembered
for setting up the first kidney dialysis unit at St. Paul's Hospital
through a generous donation from the
BALTZAN family and pioneering
kidney transplantation in Canada at Royal University Hospital.
Even with a busy clinical practice Dr. Marc was able to assume
leadership roles as president of the Canadian Medical Association,
Saskatchewan Medical Association, Saskatoon and District Medical
Association and Chairman, Department of Medicine, University
of Saskatchewan. Until his death he remained passionately devoted
to his patients and profession. He was named an officer of the
Order of Canada in 1995. Other honors include, Saskatchewan Order
of Merit (1999), Master of the American College of Physicians
(1999), Innovative Canadian Physician in the last 35 years, Medical
Post (2000). In the spring of 2004 he received an honorary D.Sc.
from the University of Saskatchewan. Marc took great pride in
his many family business ventures including ownership of a great
Saskatoon landmark, the Bessborough Hotel (1973-1989). Marc was
involved in the community and was a leading figure in the creation
of the Downtown Partnership. Marc's poignant and entertaining
comments in numerous publications, radio and television will
be missed. He actively participated in debate with political
leaders on economic and healthcare issues. Dr. Marc
BALTZAN will
be remembered as an outstanding clinican-scientist, medical economist,
educator and family man. The family would like to thank all those
who have shown such love and concern over the past months, especially
the physicians and nursing staff at Royal University Hospital,
Critical Care Unit and Ward 6000. A Memorial Reception was held
January 5th, 2005, 7pm at the Bessborough Hotel for all who knew
and loved him. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St.
Paul's Hospital Foundation (1702 - 20th St. W. Saskatoon Saskatchewan.
S7M 0Z9) and Royal University Hospital Foundation (103 Hospital
Dr. Saskatoon Sk. S7N 0W8). Email condolences may be sent to
mail@saskatoonfuneralhome.com. Arrangements have been entrusted
to Saskatoon Funeral Home. 244-5577
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AHMED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-08-09 published
Downtown shooting leaves 2 dead
Mayor calls Prime Minister's Office over growing problem of gun
smuggling from United States
By Unnati GANDHI,
Tuesday,
August 9, 2005, Page A8
Homicide investigators combed through Toronto's latest crime
scene yesterday, still finding shell casings hours after a downtown
shooting left two people dead and sent one to hospital during
another weekend of gun violence.
At the intersection of Maitland Place and Homewood Avenue, police
forensic officers placed seven pylons on a patch of grass indicating
new evidence by a blood-soaked white jersey with flies hovering
over it.
One investigator found a shell casing in a gutter by the jersey
and took it away for testing, while others analyzed a bullet
hole in the side wall of a house next to the crime scene.
Just before 4 a.m. yesterday, gunfire erupted near the popular
Phoenix nightclub on Sherbourne Street, where police found 19-year-old
Ali Mohamud
ALI, the city's 41st homicide victim, shot in the
head and a 20-year-old man with non-life-threatening injuries.
Minutes later, a police cruiser was flagged down at nearby Jarvis
and Bloor Streets. Inside a car was 23-year-old Loyan Mohammed
AHMED suffering from multiple gunshots. He died later in hospital.
While certain neighbourhoods in Toronto have been the scene of
more than 20 shootings in the past two weeks, resulting in six
homicides, Mayor David
MILLER maintained that the increased gun
violence in the city is an anomaly.
"What is happening with these shootings is not Toronto," he told
a news-media briefing yesterday afternoon, which Toronto Police
Chief Bill Blair also attended.
"And Torontonians are not going to tolerate a city where guns
are used to settle disputes between people."
While mayor and the chief said steps are being taken to prevent
more gang-related violence, there have been no arrests in the
three most recent slayings.
Efforts such as redeploying about 50 uniformed police officers
to the northwest corner of the city since last Thursday has left
Chief Blair looking to fill gaps in other neighbourhoods after
yesterday's incidents.
"We also want to assure those in our most vulnerable communities
that officers will be redeployed from across the city and from
across the service, without depleting resources in all of our
neighbourhoods because public safety in all of our neighbourhoods
of Toronto is important," he said.
"We are finding ways within our organization to move officers
in uniform into these neighbourhoods."
Chief Blair reported that police have seized 2,170 guns since
the beginning of the year. Half of the guns used in crimes in
the city had been smuggled from the United States, underscoring
an issue Mr.
MILLER brought up during a spate of violence last
week that saw one person killed and five wounded by gunfire,
including a four-year-old boy.
"There's no question that there are more guns being used in crimes
and it's a serious issue," Mr.
MILLER said yesterday, adding
that he had spoken to the Prime Minister Paul Martin's office
yesterday.
"The Prime Minister's Office assured me that they're already
working to try to deal with the issue of gun smuggling."
On Sunday night, two men aged 27 and 17 were taken to hospital
with non-life-threatening injuries after what police said may
have been a drive-by-shooting in the Markham Road and Eglinton
Avenue East area.
On Friday night, 27-year-old Melbourne
WHITTICK was shot and
killed in the city's northeast while waiting for a bus on Victoria
Park Avenue. He had become involved in an altercation with two
men and died of a single shot to the abdomen.
"We have seen that there's a significant increase in the number
of homicides that have taken place in the city as a result of
firearm use and we're also seeing a great deal of that increase
in that much of that violence is taking place in very public
places," Chief Blair said.
He stressed that in these cases, the public's help is still what
is going to catch the offenders, citing a fourfold increase in
the number of calls to Crime Stoppers in the past week.
"We have received a record number of calls to Crime Stoppers
and I think that reflects the concerns that the community and
the citizens of Toronto have about the violence we have experienced."
Near the Maitland-Homewood crime scene yesterday, with the beeping
of a police metal detector in the background, area resident Joanne
BRIGDEN said violence was bound to have affected her neighbourhood
sooner or later and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
"It was a matter of time before our area was hit," said Ms.
BRIGDEN,
whose house backs onto the Phoenix nightclub.
But the gun violence of the past few weeks is not scaring her,
she added.
"Maybe there's a little increase in crime, but unless you assign
a cop to every criminal," it's not going to stop any time soon,
she said.
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AHMED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-08-09 published
Shootings claim two more lives
'Gun crime is not the Toronto that any Torontonian expects'
By Betsy POWELL with files from Vanessa L:
UQQ,
Crime
Reporter
The group of Friends had just left the Phoenix Concert Theatre
on Sherbourne St. in downtown Toronto after enjoying its weekly
reggae music and hip hop night.
They were heading to a car parked on a nearby street just before
4 a.m. yesterday, when a man came up to them and fired several
shots. Two men died and another was hurt.
Police don't believe the gunman knew the victims. What they do
know is that guns have been used in more slayings this year than
in all of 2004.
Ali Mohamud
ALI, 19, died instantly in the shooting early Monday
near Homewood Ave. and Maitland Pl. A 20-year-old man was also
hit.
Friends tried to drive Loyan Mohammed
AHMED, 23, to a nearby
hospital. A few blocks away, near Bloor and Jarvis Sts., they
waved to police for help. An ambulance came but paramedics weren't
able to save him.
Twenty-three people have been shot in Toronto in the past two
weeks, including a 4-year-old boy.
"It's a very serious concern," Mayor David
MILLER told a news
conference yesterday at police headquarters that was also attended
by police Chief Bill Blair and members of the police services
board.
"Gun crime is not the Toronto that any Torontonian expects,"
the mayor said.
"We do not expect to have shooting incidents of the kind that
happened last night behind a popular nightclub to happen in this
city."
Police don't know if the gunman was in the nightclub and they
don't know what motivated the shooter.
While police believe many recent shootings in the city are "retaliatory"
and are part of gang wars, there is nothing to suggest the deaths
of ALI and
AHMED were gang-related, said homicide Staff Insp.
Jeff McGUIRE.
Seven men have been killed with guns since July 30. Just one
arrest has been made.
"They are the most difficult to solve and they are the ones most
often related back to gang-related violence," said
McGUIRE.
Police have seized 2,470 firearms so far in 2005, said Blair.
The majority of the handguns that were used in crime have been
traced to the United States.
MILLER repeated his pledge to push the federal government for
action on firearms smuggling, saying authorities have a difficult
time catching gun runners. The mayor said he has even heard of
snowbirds -- the Canadians who flock to sunnier climes in the
winter -- bringing guns into this country illegally.
No weapon was recovered after early yesterday's shooting.
Yesterday there were three areas cordoned off by yellow police
tape in the downtown core, one at Maitland Pl. and Homewood Ave.,
another at Jarvis and Bloor Sts., where a green Malibu straddled
the southbound lanes of Jarvis with its two doors ajar.
Yellow tape was also in front of the Phoenix, though
McGUIRE
emphasized police don't believe anything happened there.
One resident of a highrise on Wellesley St. overlooking Homewood,
got up shortly before 4 a.m. and looked out the window after
hearing voices.
"I thought it was just hookers out there having another hooker
fight," said the man, who asked that his name not be used.
He said he spotted what looked like two groups of men facing
each other.
"Then there was four quick pops and then two pops and the noise
sounded like a cap gun... and kaboom, one's down," he said, adding
he didn't see who pulled the trigger or from which direction
it came.
He called 911 and went on to his balcony and saw one man splayed
over another lying on the ground, bleeding and with some clothing
clumped to the side of his neck.
"He was screeching 'Call police, call an ambulance.' "
Yesterday, there was a pool of blood on the roadway, beside a
white windbreaker-style jacket.
Another resident of the building, Bruce
McCUBBIN, was sleeping
in his apartment when his girlfriend awoke after hearing the
sound of four or five gunshots. They got up and went to the balcony,
which also faces south, and watched what happened next.
"One man was lying on the ground with another crouched over him
holding what looked like a towel to his head and there was blood
coming from him."
He saw another man leaning against a post who appeared to be
hit in the arm. "It was difficult to see because it was so dark."
He heard someone yelling, "Call the cops, call the cops," and
others panicking. "There was voices all over the place but...
there was people screaming up the street."
McCUBBIN, an ex-police officer in Glasgow, contrasted the recent
"crazy" period of gun violence in Toronto to what he saw back
home.
"Glasgow is a violent city in a way but more stabbings, slashings,
and people don't really carry guns because there's strict gun
laws in Britain," he said. "But here, I've never seen anything
like what I saw last night, even with two years on the police
force, I didn't see anything as bad as I saw last night on the
street. It was terrible."
Yesterday police officers combed the area and used a metal detector
on the grass around a large Victorian brick home at the corner
of Homewood and Maitland that was hit by a bullet.
The occupants declined to speak to reporters.
In the past five days, the Toronto Police Service has redeployed
approximately 50 officers from throughout the service up into
the northwest part of the city, which has had a number of shooting
incidents, but also into Scarborough and downtown neighbourhoods
plagued with gun violence, Blair told the news conference.
Both he and
McGUIRE, however, said the city is not collapsing
with gun or youth violence and blamed "a small few" for terrorizing
neighbourhoods.
Back near Homewood Ave., a woman who identified herself as Lisa,
and didn't want her last name used, was walking with her two
children past the police tape on Wellesley St. She said she is
sickened by the violence but looks to understand what is driving
it.
"Toronto is segregated and they are marginalized, not part of
society. They're bad guys, suffering mental illness, who grew
up in poverty and have little hope of finding jobs so they turn
to the underworld and guns."
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