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Back-to-school shoppers returned to Yorkdale Shopping Centre on Friday morning, one day after the sound of gunshots sent customers scrambling for safety.
Customers and employees who arrived at the popular mall were corralled through security checkpoints before being allowed to enter the building.
It was just before 3 p.m. on Thursday when at least two gunshots were fired near a Starbucks on the southeast side of the mall. The noise shocked shoppers, many of whom ran or ducked for cover.
Two people suffered minor injuries while fleeing the scene but no serious injuries were reported.
Police kept the mall on lockdown for the remainder of the day. Store employees and managers were later permitted to reenter the building to collect belongings and lock up stores. The shopping centre reopened to the public at 10 a.m.
Employees returning to work this morning expressed mixed feelings when recalling the events.
“What did we see? It’s hard to say because in that moment, we just ran,” one worker told CTV News Toronto. “You don’t want to see anything… We heard the very loud noise of a gunshot.”
The search continues multiple suspects in connection with the ordeal, who reportedly fled toward the Yorkdale TTC station after the gunfire. Police say the incident started with an altercation between two groups of males.
Investigators said there were at least three males in each party, but detailed suspect descriptions were not provided for all of them.
The first suspect is described as a male in his 20s, who was wearing a black jacket with a hoodie and blue jeans. The second suspect has been described as a skinny male in his 20s, standing around five-foot-nine and carrying a black handgun.
As gunfire erupted, shoppers took to social media to recount what they saw and heard.
One Twitter user wrote that he was locked inside a Rolex store with other shoppers while they awaited an all-clear from police. Others expressed disbelief about the sound of the shots, saying it wasn’t until they saw people running did they realize the gravity of the situation.
“Everybody started to run,” one woman said at the time, her voice choked with emotion. “They said, ‘It’s a shooting! It’s a shooting!’ So we hid.”
“I heard a second big bang and at that point everybody started scrambling,” another shopper said.
“They were running for their lives. It was chaotic. At that point I knew something was definitely up.”
Police say they continue to investigate and are reviewing surveillance video from the mall’s advanced network of security cameras.
Yorkdale Shopping Center is now asking anyone who left their belongings behind during the commotion to contact their security desk today to retrieve them.
“Overall I think that Toronto is a safe community,” one shopper said. “Like with the Danforth, we all rallied together and we said that this isn’t us… Well, this is not us either.”
