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Anne Marie Aikins could never have expected that her family’s night out in the city would be cut short by the emergency evacuation of Union Station on Saturday.
Yet after a fatal shooting near the Scotiabank Arena around 8 p.m., Toronto police locked down and evacuated Union Station. Police said they located a man with gunshot wounds near York Street and Bremner Boulevard, where the man died.
Police have not yet released suspect information, but Toronto Police duty inspector Paul Krawczyk told reporters Saturday night that one suspect ran south towards Lake Shore Boulevard and one ran into Union Station after the shooting. He added officers believed the shooting was not random.
The head of media and public relations for Metrolinx, Aikins said she had family from Barrie visiting the city that day. After taking her grandchildren to Medieval Times, Aikins said she and about 15 relatives had just got off the GO Train at Union Station.
“I’m still a little overwhelmed by it,” Aikins said. “It was disconcerting, to say the least.”
She said the station was busy. The Honda Indy Toronto and a menagerie of festivals, concerts and events drew people to the downtown core, and Blue Jays fans “milled about” after the team’s game that evening.
After some relatives took Aikins’ four-year-old and infant grandchildren home, Aikins said she took the rest of the family to find dinner while they waited for their train back to Barrie.
Aikins said her family was in Maple Leaf Square as the incident occurred. At the time, they had no idea what was unfolding.
“I imagine the shooter could have run right by us,” Aikins said.
“(We were) right in that area. It makes my heart race a little bit thinking about it.”
They ended up at Union Chicken, an eatery on the lower level of the station near the York Street and Front Street exit.
Aikins said her family had “literally just sat down,” when a security guard entered the restaurant and told patrons they needed to leave.
“People were looking confused,” Aikins said.
“I could tell people were thinking ‘if I just sit here quietly they’ll just let me stay with my beer’.”
But Aikins said as soon as the guards told her the whole station was being evacuated, she realized something awful had happened. In the ten years she had worked with Metrolinx, Aikins said she doesn’t remember a single other time police had put the entire station in lockdown.
More than 300,000 travel through Union Station each day on GO trains and buses, VIA, UP Express and the TTC, according to the station’s website, which adds more than 30 retailers also operate out of the station.
“It’s a very rare thing that police take the step to shut down Union Station,” Aikins said.
“It’s the busiest transportation hub in the country, and very difficult to shut down.”
Aikins’ nine-year-old grandson Seamus Wicksted was still with her.
“He was pretty confused and scared,” Aikins said. “He had a lot of questions about what happened and why.”
Aikins’ grandson was not alone. She said people were confused and scared, but that security managed to move people outside onto York Street, and then towards Front Street.
“It was empty within minutes. I really honestly don’t know how they did it,” she said.
On Front Street, Aikins said she was able to call Metrolinx’s control centre and learn what had happened. About half an hour after the shooting, Aikins and her family had been safely evacuated.
It took about two hours before the station reopened, Aikins said. Her family was able to get on a train back home late into the night. TTC Service began to resume around 10 p.m.
When approached by The Star for comment, a spokesperson for the TTC declined to speak about the incident.
Mayor John Tory said the Union Station shooting was “extremely upsetting and unsettling” in a press statement emailed to The Star. The email also had a statement about the shooting in a King West nightclub Sunday morning that sent a man and a woman to the hospital with serious wounds.
“Any gun violence in our city is unacceptable,” Tory said in the email.
“My thoughts are with those mourning a loved one today in the wake of one shooting and the family and friends praying for the recovery of those injured.”
He added he would be “advocating for tougher gun laws with stronger penalties.”
When The Star reached out for comment, Toronto police said they could not share more information on the shootings at this time.
As for Aikins, she said last night was a sleepless one.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that someone actually died,” Aikins said.
“It’s just pretty overwhelming to think about, and scary that gun violence has gotten to that point.”
Homicide detectives are still investigating the shooting, police said. They ask anyone with information to contact police at 416-808-2222, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477.
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