Toronto police have launched a homicide investigation after a woman was fatally shot inside an apartment in the downtown core on Saturday. Duty Inspector Dan Pravica of the Toronto Police Service addressed reporters to provide an update on the case, which officers had been working since the morning.
According to Pravica, the incident began at around 9:30 a.m., when officers from 51 Division were called to a report of a shooting inside an apartment unit within 251 Jarvis Street. The address sits in a densely populated stretch of downtown Toronto, and officers moved quickly to respond to the call.
On arrival, officers located an adult female victim who was suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Emergency responders began life-saving measures at the scene in an effort to keep the woman alive as the situation unfolded inside the building.
Despite those efforts, the outcome was grim. The woman was transported by an emergency run to a local trauma centre, where, a short time later, she was pronounced deceased. Her death turned what had begun as a shooting call into a fatal case.
Pravica confirmed that the matter is now being treated as a homicide. The Toronto Police Service's Homicide and Missing Persons Unit has since taken over the investigation, a step that reflects the gravity of a death involving a firearm inside a residential building.
Police said the victim had not yet been formally identified, as officers were still working to locate and notify her next of kin, and that her name would be released at a later date. No possible motive was set out either, with the investigation still in its early stages.
Pravica added that, while he could not share detailed suspect information at that stage, a suspect had been arrested a short time earlier in connection with a threat to public safety. The involvement of the Homicide and Missing Persons Unit signalled that detectives would now lead the effort to establish exactly what happened inside the apartment and who was responsible.