York U shooting a lesson in fear

(Updated)

Toronto Police are still looking for the man responsible for a shooting on the campus of York University which sent two women to hospital.

Many students were in a state of disbelief today only a few hours after the shooting. Most were just shocked that someone would bring a loaded gun to a university.

It was 10:45 last night. An armed man wearing all black fired a single shot inside the food court at York University.

First year student Vanessa Muff was there with friends. “I saw someone yelling, you know he has a gun, get down, and the gunmen was actually coming towards me.”

She tried to run but had a close call with the gunman. “The back of my chair hit him and he had tripped and fallen down to his face.”

Vanessa ran and didn’t look back.

“It just happened so fast, you don’t really think, and reaction time was so fast that, it was just, it was really scary.”

Amid the chaos, two women were injured. One was shot in the leg, the other hit with shrapnel. Paramedics and police arrived soon and both were taken to hospital. They’re expected to recover.

It is not believed that they were targeted. Police locked down the food court, for much of the night, but didn’t make any arrests.

Today, students returned, including witnesses, and things looked back to normal, with some reminders.

Amir: “We were trying to come out and people were saying don’t come out, there’s um, kind of thing going, there’s, someone is about to get shot and all of the sudden we heard a shot, and everybody started like scattering.”

Seun: “I heard one, I heard just one then I ran away.”

Tamica Marcano: “Basically what I saw was chaos, and then police cars and I saw a bullet hole in a chair.”

There’s very little evidence showing what happened here last night, even the chair that a bullet went through has since been replaced. The difference is, students saying there is a very real fear they now have on campus.

Dina Hassan: “I saw the video last night and really my heart is racing, and I don’t feel safe at all.”

The university says they have stepped up foot patrols around campus and are working with police, but some aren’t satisfied.

Jennifer Moore says this campus has a terrible record for safety since she heard about a sexual assault in her first week. “It’s scary, it’s dangerous, and I can’t believe the school is open today, I really can’t.”

“On top of that we’ve had six more e-mails and bulletins about sexual assault, we’ve had two armed robberies and actually there was one last week so that’s a third armed robbery and then on top of it a shooting yesterday.”

She says she feels unsafe everywhere on campus now, and something has to be done.

Police have released a description of the suspect. They say he’s black, in his mid 20’s, between 5-foot-8 and 6-feet tall. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black coat.

Anyone with information is asked to call Toronto Police at 416-808-3100, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).