A sign on the east wall of the tiny playground warns: “No running, pushing or shoving.”It doesn’t say: No shooting.And who would heed it anyway, when the city has reached an urban boiling point where reckless gunfire is sprayed at a local neighbourhood sanctuary crowded with youngsters, in broad daylight?Ten bullet holes, circled in black marker, pierce the wooden fence that rings the back side of the parkette on Alton Towers Circle in far-flung Scarborough.Stick a pencil in the holes and it’s clear the bullets’ trajectory was downward, the shooter probably standing on a berm at the edge of an adjoining parking lot.Able to see over the fence, presumably, at his target, the only adult, or adolescent, who was in the playground, along with 11 kids, about 5 p.m. Thursday.Read more:‘I don’t want to lose you this way.’ Witness describes chaotic scene after two young girls shotEngagement over enforcement key to reducing gun violence, activist saysMayor John Tory calls for swift justice in ‘despicable’ shooting of two girls in ScarboroughToo cowardly to come closer, presumably, and aim at the person he clearly intended to kill.Instead, wantonly putting the lives of all those little ones at risk. Then jumping into a vehicle that peeled away.Two girls, sisters ages 5 and 9, were struck, recovering at Sick Kids from their wounds, the younger shot in the abdomen, critically injured, the older shot in the ankle. They’re going to be okay, their condition stable after each had undergone surgery.Jaida Hussey was on the slide — the only playground apparatus on the site — when the shooting erupted, too young to understand what was happening.Asked her age, Jaida counts on her fingers. “Seven.”A playmate of the victims, all attending the same school, Divine Infant Catholic School.“It was scary,” the child told the Star. “I saw them on the ground. They were crying. But not tha ...
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