Investigators suspect three armed carjackings that occurred over the course of two hours on Wednesday night are linked, according to police.
The carjackings occurred between 4:30 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. on Wednesday, the latest in a string of violent events targeting high-end vehicles.
One of the instances occurred near Sheppard Avenue East and Willowdale Avenue in North York, while the other two occurred around 18 kilometers east in Scarborough, near Sheppard Avenue and Markham Road and Sheppard Avenue and Dean Park Road.
In each of the incidents, police say that a victim was outside of their homes near their parked car when a white sedan stopped in front of their driveway and a suspect “immediately jumped out” and ran towards them.
Police said that the suspect would then produce a handgun and make a demand for the victim’s car keys.
He would then flee the scene in the victim’s vehicle while the other suspects fled in the white sedan.
Police said that the suspects ultimately got away with three vehicles.
The stolen vehicles are as follows:
2008 white Lexus IS250 with the Ontario licence plate AMDT 138
2019 black Toyota Rav4 with the Ontario licence plate CJBN 929
2019 blue Toyota Corolla with the Ontario licence plate CHTK 924
The three carjackings are just the latest incidents in which Toronto residents were approached at gunpoint and asked to hand over their keys, a trend which Mayor John Tory said earlier this week has become a “plague” on the city.
On Wednesday night CTV News Toronto did speak to one of the victims in the most recent string of carjackings.
He said that he had just gotten back from Costco and was about to go inside his home when a man holding a pistol approached him and demanded his keys, along with his wallet and cell phone.
“I have been hearing a lot of things going on, especially carjacking, but I was not expecting that it will happen to me,” the man said. “I used to be very careful. But for whatever reason today, I was not giving that much attention.”
Police say that the suspects in the three carjackings on Wednesday night should be considered armed and dangerous.
They say that the first suspect is described as a Black male, who is in his 20s and is approximately six-feet tall and 150 to 160 lbs. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweater and a black mask.
Source_ The Canadian Press
