Canada police shoot man in Toronto seen with rifle near school

MONTREAL (AFP): Police in Canada’s largest city Toronto on Thursday fatally shot a man armed with a rifle, local media reported, in an incident that forced several schools into lockdown just two days after a deadly assault on a US primary school.

Bystanders alerted police to the man’s presence in an eastern neighborhood of Toronto, and the circumstances of what transpired next were not immediately clear.

But city police chief James Ramer told reporters that the suspect, described as a man in his late teens or early 20s, was dead after he had “confronted” responding officers, without elaborating.

The police force’s Twitter account said that after officers located the man, a “police firearm” was “discharged.”

A spokeswoman for the Special Investigations Unit told the CBC that preliminary evidence showed that two police officers had fired their weapons, and the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.

It was not clear if the man was holding the weapon when police shot him.

Ramer said he was unable to offer more details, as the incident was under investigation.

“There’s no threat to public safety,” he said.

“Due to the proximity to a school, I certainly understand the trauma and how traumatic this must have been for staff, students and parents, given recent events that have happened in the United States,” the chief added.

On Tuesday, a shooting at a Texas elementary school left 21 dead — 19 children and two teachers.