Shooting at the Eaton Centre: The story so far

If you hadn’t yet heard (and really, how have you not heard about this?) Dundas Square and the Eaton Centre are currently shut down after an unidentified assailant opened fire in the food court in the shopping centre. Here is what we know so far (as of 8:17pm):

  • Someone opened fire in the Eaton Centre’s food court at 6:30pm. The mall has been evacuated and emergency services are on the scene.
  • So far there are two confirmed injuries, one of which was a 13-year-old boy, although there are reports going around that as many as six were physically harmed during the assault.
  • Sources say that between seven and eight shots were fired in the food court.
  • The subway between Bloor and Union is closed.
  • One pregnant woman, who was initially believed to be injured, has gone into labour.
  • Rob Ford is en route to the shooting, which . . . well, it’s noble I guess, although to be honest, I have no idea what he’s planning on doing. Godspeed, I guess?
  • Below is an image posted to Blue Jays’ player Brett Lawrie’s Twitter account. Lawrie was reportedly in the Eaton Centre at the time of the attack.

UPDATED – 11:30pm

  • The number of people injured from the shooting has been confirmed at seven, and one person has been confirmed dead.
  • Rob Ford showed up at 9:30pm to support the police. Thanks, I guess?
  • Andrea Houston sent me this link, inviting people to a community vigil, which will be held Sunday, June 3 at 6pm at Dundas Square.

I’ll update this as more information becomes readily available. That being said, a quick word to media outlets and other interested parties: at its best, Twitter is an instantaneous crowd-sourcing tool for news gathering. Or it could be dumb teenagers chiming in. All I’m saying is, take your Twitter sources with a grain of salt, especially if they punctuate their missives with abbreviations.

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