3 adults, including suspected suspect, dead in shooting: cops

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Police say the man believed to be responsible for Monday's north Toronto office shooting that left three people dead is among those who died.

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Three adults died in the lobby of a north Toronto office after police responded to reports of shots fired in an area near a daycare and school.

Det.-Sgt. Alan Bartlett said the shooting happened Monday afternoon at a business doing financial transactions.

He said police believe the altercation that took place – in which a man, a woman and the shooter died – was linked to this case.

“We are still in the process of notifying next of kin,” Bartlett said.

He said four people, a few of whom work together, were inside the building at the time.

An individual inside the premises called police, Bartlett said.

A nearby daycare and school were closed, but Bartlett notes that no children were directly affected by what happened other than the lockdown.

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He said there was no access between the business offices and the daycare.

Investigators said they were called to the area of ​​Don Mills and Mallard roads shortly before 3:30 p.m. and found three people with unknown injuries. They publicly confirmed the deaths around 5 p.m.

An independent all-boys Catholic primary school was closed due to the investigation and a nearby daycare was evacuated late in the afternoon.

Police spokesperson Const. Cindy Chung said the shooting did not take place in a school office, but in the lobby of one of the neighborhood's business offices.

Shahrokh Biniyaz, a graphic designer and photographer who has a studio in a neighborhood building, said he heard an argument and then gunshots coming from somewhere in his building Monday afternoon.

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“I didn’t know what it was, I thought maybe it was a circuit breaker or something because it was so loud,” he said.

“I came out of my office and I heard arguing at the reception… I went back to my desk and sat down, and I heard the second bang after two minutes.

Biniyaz said that at that point he came out of his office again, heard an argument, then left the building through a back door.

“I called 911, the police arrived pretty quickly,” he said, adding that he then heard another round of gunshots.

Biniyaz said that during the argument he heard the voices of two men and a woman.

He added that he only heard that three people had died while watching the news after giving a police interview.

A large police presence remained in the area Monday evening, and law enforcement was expecting delays and closures.

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Earlier in the day, relieved parents were seen hugging their children tightly after they were reunited right in front of police tape at the St. George Mini School daycare. The strip separated part of the tree-lined street and several police cars were parked in the area.

One parent said staff contacted them and told them to pick up their children early. Earlier in the afternoon, a supervisor told the crowd of parents that everyone inside was safe.

Sarah Ashfield, one of the daycare workers, said she didn't have much information about the situation at first, but she told everyone to go into lockdown after a supervisor noticed that the building was surrounded by police.

“I didn’t panic, I just waited for the information as we received it,” she said.

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Once she alerted the parents, Ashfield said she was bombarded with messages but couldn't tell the parents anything other than that the children were safe.

She said she once again tried to reassure the parents as the children left the daycare.

“They're perfectly fine, they have no idea what's going on,” she said of the children, adding that staff only told them as they were being discharged that there would be police outside.

The daycare will be open Tuesday provided investigators give them the green light, she said.

Police said Toronto Transit Commission buses were brought in to shelter children from daycare and school while they waited for caregivers to pick them up.

Around 6:30 p.m., police said all the children at the neighborhood daycare and school had been reunited with their parents.

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