North York shooting leaves three dead

Midday incident in office unit forces nearby daycares into lockdown

- CALVI LEON AND JENNIFER PAGLIARO

Two men and a woman are dead, the shooter thought to be among them, after gunfire sent a Don Mills neighbourhood into a panic Monday afternoon.

Anxious parents waiting behind yellow police tape were reunited with their children being looked after in two local daycares after police cleared the scene.

One office worker in the building at 25 Mallard Rd. called police just before 3:30 p.m. after hearing shots in the reception area.

Det. Sgt. Alan Bartlett told reporters at the scene Monday night police believe there were four people in the commercial building at the time and the shooter was one of the dead.

"We believe that the individual responsible for the shooting is among the deceased," he said, adding he couldn't say definitively if the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot. "With every homicide investigation we have to be open to all possibilities."

According to a source with knowledge of the investigation, police are currently investigating the shooting as a murder-suicide. They spoke to the Star under the condition of anonymity, as they weren't authorized to speak publicly.

Bartlett said police wouldn't be identifying the dead on Monday as they were still notifying the families.

In the midst of the investigative chaos, officers and daycare workers were seen wheeling cribs of children and guiding toddlers toward their families. The commercial part of the building has no access to the daycare, police confirmed, and none of the kids or workers there were harmed.