A midnight “gun battle” involving four firearms and an unknown number of people left one 22-year-old Toronto man dead on a quiet residential street North York early Wednesday, police say.Toronto police have identified the victim of Toronto’s 89th homicide of 2018 as Yohannes Brhanu, 22, of Toronto. He was found unresponsive in the driver’s seat of a vehicle shortly after midnight and was taken to Sunnybrook hospital where he died, Det-Sgt. Mike Carbone said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.Brhanu’s killing means Toronto has matched a tragic record: The city has now seen more homicides in 2018 than in any year since 1991, with six weeks remaining in the year. Carbone said it appeared Brhanu was shot as his car was briefly parked on Ann Arbour Rd. near Lovilla Blvd., in the area of Weston Rd. and Hwy. 401, with another individual in the front passenger seat of his car. Another vehicle “with some association to the deceased” approached from the opposite direction, Carbone said, then a third unknown vehicle stopped at the driver’s side of Brhanu’s car and its occupant or occupants started shooting at him.Individuals “associated with the deceased” returned fire then fled the scene, Carbone said, adding one person was subsequently arrested but has been released without charges. Between ten and twenty bullets were fired, he said.“Essentially it was a gun battle between the offenders who murdered the deceased and the people who were associated with the deceased,” he said.Based on the evidence at this point, Carbone said Brhanu appeared to be the target of the shooting, adding he was found with a loaded firearm that was not one of the guns used in the shooting.Carbone said he would not speculate on the motive for the shooting, including whether it was gang-related.The total of 89 homicides so far this year in Toronto matches a record set in 1991. This year has also seen the highest per ...
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