Gunfire in a downtown Toronto mall last night has left one dead and seven injured, reports the Toronto Star. Police said the shooting appeared to be targeted, but, as it happened in one of Canada's most crowded malls, numerous bystanders were also shot in the attack and more were injured in the resulting panic as people fled. One mall worker described the shooter as a “just crazy, mentally unstable" dark-skinned man in a hoodie, reports CNews, but no arrests have yet been made. The shooter killed a 25-year-old man, put a 13-year-old girl in critical condition, and sent a pregnant woman into labor in the chaos.
"I dropped to the ground so I wouldn't get hit," said a 22-year-old who was shot in the hip, but "it didn't really work." He was among many who took to social media to describe the scene, and told his family about the shooting via Facebook. "Pretty sure someone just let off a round bullets in eaton center mall .. Wow just sprinted out of the mall ... Through traffic ...," tweeted Blue Jays player Brett Lawrie. The Globe and Mail reports that the Toronto police chief addressed the media a few hours later, saying, "We will be relentless in our pursuit of the individual or individuals responsible for this violence." (More Toronto stories.)