Article content continued

This one at Spence’s Bakery on Eglinton Ave. W., east of Oakwood Ave., is as gutless an act of evil as you can get — right up there with the Jane Creba shooting on Yonge Street or the Danzig barbecue mass shooting. Because it appears no one was killed, it will be forgotten about. It should not be. It was as frightening an incident as one can experience. People just out for a bite to eat were sitting ducks.

A dark-coloured SUV eastbound on Eglinton made a U-Turn and stopped in front of the bustling local late-night eatery and blasted it with shells. It’s just brazen gunplay in which the shooters have no concern for human life. When the smoke cleared, six people, aged 30-69, were struck. The five men and one woman were all taken to hospital with serious injuries. Five have already been released.

Look how close this was to being six homicides. So close. Three hours after this shooting, a man was gunned down in a vehicle in the Keele and Sheppard area. That puts Toronto at 47 homicides this year — five more than this time last year. The bakery shooting easily could have added many more. Police are trying to determine if there was an intended target and what is behind this terrible crime: Just shooting into a restaurant for kicks, sending a message or targeting somebody there?

Whatever the motive, you don’t hear much talk about defunding Toronto Police on mornings like this. Or dispatching social workers. What you also don’t hear about is the number of violent criminals who run in gangs who are out on bail or parole for serious charges. You hear even less from some politicians who prefer to tweet about what special interest day is being commemorated or something more cheerful.