Teens arrested after student shot outside Toronto’s Weston Collegiate

Toronto police have arrested two people after a 15-year-old student was shot and critically injured in a parking lot outside of a Toronto high school on Thursday.

Police were called to Weston Collegiate Institute on Pine Street, near Lawrence Avenue West and Jane Street, around noon for reports of a shooting.

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) later confirmed a grade 10 student, aged 15, was shot outside the high school during lunch hour. Weston C.I. was placed in lockdown, which was later lifted, and students were relocated to nearby elementary schools.

Insp. Norm Proctor said Friday that investigators tracked down two male suspects who committed the shooting from a 2022 grey Hyundai Elantra that was stolen earlier in the day in an armed carjacking.

Multiple shots were fired from the vehicle.

“At this time, it is alleged that the driver shot the victim multiple times from the vehicle,” he said. “The suspects fled, and the vehicle was later located in Peel Region. It was later learned that this vehicle was stolen by carjacking, once again, in Peel.”

Two 17-year-old male youths were arrested without incident and face several charges, including attempted murder, in connection to the daytime shooting. A loaded firearm was located during a search warrant, Insp. Proctor said.

The two teenagers were not identified through the province’s Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

Victim, 15, in critical but stable condition

Insp. Proctor said the staff at Weston C.I. helped the male student after he was shot and thanked the quick response of school officials.

The 15-year-old victim remains in the hospital in stable condition.

Toronto police would not say whether the suspects and victim knew each other, but Insp. Proctor said investigators do not believe the two teenagers were students at the school.

“It’s a brazen offence,” Insp. Proctor said.

“… It’s alarming. One shooting is too many, but any shooting on a school property or any school-related shooting [targeting young people] raises the alarm bells even further.”

Weston C.I. student Leyah Brissett said she was outside with friends when the lunchtime shooting occurred, and her immediate reaction was to “run, don’t look back.”

“There was a big boom, and a lot of people were screaming,” said Brissett, who is 14. “It was loud.”

“People were crying, running to the bus stops … Really and truly, nobody knew where it came from,” she said.

With files from The Canadian Press