The city of Toronto has seen a jump in homicides compared to the same time last year, up 13 murders year-to date.
To date, there have been 74 homicides in the city. Through the same time frame in 2020, there were 61 homicides, according to CP24.
According to Statistics Canada, Toronto experienced 105 homicides in total last year.
40 of this year's homicides so far have resulted from shootings, up from a total of 36 homicides by gun in 2020. So far, 54 percent of homicides this year have resulted from guns.
11 homicides occurred in Toronto this month, eight of which were shootings.
Toronto police released shooting and homicide rates in the city Friday morning, and requested help from the public in providing any information that might help solve some outstanding cases.
"We highly value the assistance we receive every day from members of the affected communities and we would not be able to have investigative success without them," Insp. Hank Idsinga, unit commander of homicide, said at during a briefing Friday morning.
Police Chief James Ramer said he's concerned with the spree of shootings seen in the past month.
"We're always concerned about each and every homicide that occurs in the city. I think you know the number of 74 is really jumped up this year given the last month. We're really hoping that you know the numbers are not going to continue in that regard and so we're going to have to see what it looks like at year-end," he said.
"Police said they have implemented a Centralized Shooting Response (CSR) team composed of eight investigative teams that respond to all firearm discharge incidents," according to CP24.
Despite the alarming statistics coming out of the city in October and year-round, police say that there has been a 17 percent reduction in shootings year-to-date.
"This focus in centralized response to shooting investigations has in part contributed to the 17 percent reduction in our total shootings year-to-date referenced by our chief, and we are cautiously optimistic that we may see a 20 percent reduction in shootings for the end of this year," said Acting Deputy Chief of Police Myron Demkiw of Specialized Operations.
Of the 11 homicides that occurred in the city in October, seven of them have Idsinga said seven have been solved either by identifying or arresting and charging suspects.
The four homicides where suspects remain outstanding include Homicide #66, a fatal shooting in North York on Oct. 16; Homicide #68, a homicide in the Toronto's Jane and Finch area on Oct. 23; Homicide #70, a fatal shooting in a North York plaza on Oct. 23; Homicide #72, a homicide in Scarborough on Oct. 28, according to CP24.
"Despite some of these incidents happening within days, even hours of each other and within the scene or neighboring divisions, we do not have any evidence at this time to suggest they are connected in any way but of course we are always open to that possibility," said Idsinga.
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