Fear, grief and calls for security after deadly shooting at Toronto street festival

TORONTO — A Toronto street that should have been packed with vendors and dancing people was all but deserted on Sunday after a shooting the night before at the Salsa on St. Clair festival left two people dead and sent thousands running for cover.

The street festival on St. Clair Avenue West was scheduled to run through Sunday, but organizers called it off as police continued their investigation into the sudden gunfire that also sent four people to hospital with serious injuries.

Instead, only a handful of businesses were open along the street as police blocked access to all cars. Bright festival signs hung amid empty vendor booths and only a few people were walking around.

Redon Hoxhaj was on his way to Pain Perdu, a café on St. Clair Avenue West he visits every Sunday. It was closed.

“I feel sad, most of all, a bit afraid,” Hoxhaj said in an interview.

He said he was worried about the victims, survivors and witnesses of the shooting, and about the near future of the businesses on the street.

“Yeah, they are going to suffer. Who knows when they’ll open,” he said, adding: “People that were here yesterday, they ran in fear. I don’t know how long it’s going to take for them to recover.”

Toronto police said an estimated 13,000 people were attending the festival when shots rang out shortly after 8 p.m. in the area of St. Clair Avenue West and Arlington Avenue. One man was killed at the scene and another died in hospital. Four more were sent to hospital with serious gunshot wounds.

Police cordoned off three separate crime scenes and found two firearms, officials said. As of Sunday morning, they had made no arrests.

Salsa on St. Clair is a long-running festival celebrating Latin music, food and culture. Pictures and videos on social media showed festivalgoers dancing happily in the crowded street on Saturday afternoon, before the violence erupted.

Tomer Markovitz, owner of Romi’s Restaurant and Bakery on St. Clair Avenue West, said he and other business owners on the street shut their operations down early Saturday because they anticipated trouble and they have been urging the city and festival officials to beef up security.

They also asked festival organizers to end the celebrations earlier in the day this year, ahead of nighttime drinking that could end in unrest, he said.

“We need … more of everything here in order to contain this, because this is one of the biggest street festivals in Canada,” he said in an interview. “So even if you put a metal detector in order to come into a festival, it’s not the end of the world … It’s just to make sure everyone inside is safe.”

He said he hoped the festival would take place somewhere else next year, “somewhere else that they can contain it.”

Tara Kennedy, a resident of the area, also said the festival will need to increase its security measures in the coming years. However, she said the neighbourhood is generally a safe place to live.

“People around here, they love markets like this and they love things like this, and I do too,” she said in an interview. “It’s extremely scary.”

Officials said the lights of Toronto’s iconic CN Tower would dim at the start of every hour on Sunday night to honour the victims.

The shooting occurred on what appears to have been a particularly violent night in the city. Toronto police responded to another shooting early Sunday that left three people injured and resulted in five arrests, the force said on the X social media platform.

Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw referred to both incidents in a social media post Sunday, saying the night before was “tragic and violent.”

“The brazen violence we witnessed in the middle of a community festival … is heartbreaking and unacceptable,” Demkiw wrote on X, vowing that police would be “relentless” in its pursuit of those responsible.

On Friday night, a shooting in the Jane Street and Sheppard Avenue East area left a 22-year-old man dead and injured two others, police said in a news release.

Meanwhile, people and organizations from across Canada took to social media to express their sympathies and support.

In British Columbia, Filipino BC said it was grieving with Toronto’s Latin community, saying it knows the devastation of experiencing violence during cultural celebrations.

On April 26, 2025, 11 people were killed in a car-ramming attack at the Filipino Lapu Lapu Day celebrations in Vancouver.

In an Instagram post, the Filipino BC non-profit said violence at cultural festivals “shakes an entire community, forever changing a place that was meant to be filled with joy, connection and pride.”

“To our friends in the Latin community, please know that you are not alone,” the post said. “We are holding you in our hearts, mourning with you, and standing beside you as you begin the difficult journey ahead.”

The Hillcrest Village Business Improvement Area, which represents more than 90 businesses in the St. Clair West area, said on social media that Salsa on St. Clair has “long been a celebration of culture, community and connection.”

“It is devastating that an event dedicated to bringing people together has been overshadowed by this act of violence,” the organization said in an Instagram post.

Soul2Sole Latin Dance Company, which offers salsa and Latin dance lessons in the Toronto area, said it has been part of the Salsa on St. Clair community for more than two decades.

“We stand together in support, compassion and hope for healing for all those impacted,” the company said on Instagram.

The Toronto Tempo WNBA team also posted its condolences on the social media platform, thanking first responders and pledging solidarity with the community “in hope for healing, strength and peace in this difficult time.”

Anita Anand, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, said she once lived in the area of the shooting, describing it as “a place of community and family.”

“My thoughts are with the victims, their families and the community,” she said on X.

— With files from Sarah Smellie in St. John’s, N.L.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 12, 2026.

Monique Kasonga, The Canadian Press