Ontario reviewing supervised consumption sites after fatal shooting near Leslieville site
Posted August 17, 2023 11:47 am.
Last Updated August 17, 2023 3:06 pm.
The Ford government has launched a “critical incident review” of Ontario’s supervised consumption sites after the fatal shooting of a woman near a site in Toronto’s east end in July.
Hannah Jensen, a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said all sites are expected to comply with strict requirements and the review will start with the South Riverdale Community Health Centre near the scene of Karolina Huebner-Makurat’s death.
“Following the tragic incident last month, the ministry launched a critical incident review of the sites, starting with South Riverdale Community Health Centre. We are extremely troubled by this latest development and reviewing what options are available to the government,” Jensen said in a statement to CityNews.
RELATED: ‘Community worker among arrests in shooting that killed Toronto mother with stray bullet
Police have said Huebner-Makurat, a 44-year-old mother of two, was walking in the Queen Street East and Carlaw Avenue area of Leslieville at 12:30 p.m. on July 7 when she was hit by a stray bullet and killed.
Three people are facing charges in her death, and police say they are looking for a fourth suspect.
Earlier this week, police announced they arrested 23-year-old Khalila Zara Mohammed of Pickering, who faces charges that include accessory after the fact to an indictable offence and obstruction of justice.
The South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC) confirmed with CityNews 680 that Mohammed was employed as a health worker at the time of the shooting.
“These allegations are deeply concerning to us and to the community,” a spokesperson added. “They are also devastating and disappointing to the many SRCHC staff who work professionally and compassionately every day to deliver a range of essential health and well-being services to patients and clients in the area.”
Police also have arrested 20-year-old Ahmed Mustafa Ibrahim of Toronto and charged him with manslaughter, robbery and failure to comply with probation.
In July, Damian Hudson, a 32-year-old Toronto resident, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the shooting.
None of the charges have been proven in court.
RELATED: Leslieville residents share concerns over criminal activity near supervised consumption site
Leslieville residents have expressed concerns over what they say is an uptick in criminal activity near the safe consumption site, which first opened in the South Riverdale Community Health Centre in 2017.
Residents also say its proximity to an elementary school, Morse Street Public School, which is just around the corner, is putting the students in danger.
“I feel like we’ve all coexisted with the centre quite well. It’s definitely been the last year two years that is slowly starting to come up. But I’d say in the last six months to a year, it’s really substantially gotten worse around the center,” one nearby resident told CityNews in July.
The supervised consumption site is funded and operates under the province, and not Toronto Public Health.
With files from CityNews’ Faiza Amin, Meredith Bond, Lucas Casaletto, and John Marchesan; and The Canadian Press
