Driver who struck 4 on Toronto university walkway may have acted intentionally: police

A driver who struck four people on a walkway at Toronto Metropolitan University on Tuesday may have acted intentionally, police say.

Toronto police Duty Insp. Todd Jocko would not provide more details about why police believe that to be the case, but told reporters they believed one of the people on the walkway was known to the driver.

"It may have been an intentional targeting of a specific individual on the walkway," Jocko said, noting it was still early in the investigation. "We are still working to confirm all of those details."

The incident happened just before 2 p.m. on Nelson Mandela Walk, a pedestrian pathway on the TMU campus near Yonge and Gerrard streets. 

The driver fled the scene, Jocko said, and was last seen driving east on Gould Street in a dark green sedan with a smashed-in windshield. The suspect car's license plate is DEDZ 565, Jocko said.

Four pedestrians in total were injured, he said. Two were taken to hospital, including one with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Jocko said none of those struck were students or staff at the university and police believed the two in hospital were merely bystanders.

'It was crazy,' says student

Third-year TMU student Isaac Meng told reporters he was studying in the library next to the walkway around 1:50 p.m.,  when he heard a loud, revving sound.

He said one of his friends started calling out loudly to him, "A car just crashed [into] people! A car just crashed [into] people!"

Meng said he rushed to the window, but the car was already gone. He says he saw a man lying on the grass, apparently unconscious, as people tried to call to him. At that point, he and his friend called the police, he said.

"It was crazy," Meng said, saying it was like a scene out of a movie.

A TMU employee whose office has a view of the scene said she suddenly heard screaming outside and then saw a car racing down the walkway.

"And then three seconds later, I was like, 'Oh my God, oh my God,"' Jama Bin-Edward, a program administrator who works on the 10th floor of TMU's Jorgenson Hall, told The Canadian Press.

Bin-Edward said she saw some people being put on stretchers after police and firefighters arrived, and other people grabbing shoes that they lost in the scramble to run to safety.

She said anyone could have been walking through the campus at that time.

"[It] could have been just anyone taking a walk, which is so crazy," she said.

Local councillor Chris Moise, who went to the campus Tuesday afternoon to check on the scene, told reporters that his first thought when he heard the news was of the van attack that killed 10 people in North York in 2018, something he said he'd witnessed first-hand.

"I know how traumatic that was," Moise said. "This is why it was so important for me to come here and show my support to the student population and to the staff."

Police are still waiting for an update on the extent of the victims' injuries, Jocko said.

TMU issued a safety alert online, instructing students to avoid the area as there is an active police investigation. The incident is not affecting classes, labs or exams, according to the alert.

"Our thoughts are with those who have been injured and impacted by this incident," the university said in a statement. "We remind our community members that university support services are available for those who need them."

Police have not provided a possible motive for the collision.

Anyone with information or video footage of the incident or surrounding area is being asked to contact investigators.