One of two young men shot early Thursday morning in the city’s west end has died, Toronto police say.
Anthony Smith, 21, of Toronto, was shot on King Street West near Portland Street around 2:30 a.m. and died in hospital later in the day.
Shots rang out after a fight erupted inside the Loki Lounge. The fight spilled out onto the sidewalk where one man was shot in the head. A second man, said to be around 23 years old, was shot in the back and is expected to survive.
No arrests have been made and police haven’t released a suspect description.
Following the shooting, Coun. Adam Vaughan, who represents the area, said the province has to help the city impose tougher conditions on nightclubs. He said many of the newer clubs on the King West strip between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street must abide by strict city conditions, including security “wand” checks for weapons, video cameras, and public hearings when “troubled licences” change hands. But he believes more needs to be done.
“The reason we [need more regulations] is because nightclubs and liquor licences, when they reach a certain concentration, become extraordinarily volatile late at night,” Vaughan said at the scene of the shooting, noting violence is spilling into other neighbourhoods.
He claims the Alcohol and Gaming Corporation of Ontario grants liquor licences without considering concentration “or how it will impact the community.”
“We need to start talking about how we manage the public sidewalk and we need to talk about how we impose conditions on existing nightclub licences,” Vaughan said.
Dieter Riedel of the King-Spadina Residents Association agrees.
“We feel like in this area that there’s an over-concentration of nightlife,” he said.
“We just feel that [there’s] too many liquor licences happening in one area and that’s creating an environment where you have too many people on the streets at night who have had too much to drink.”
CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this story, police misstated Smith’s age.