‘All I wanted to do was get out’: Witnesses describe panic after Toronto street festival shooting

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A night of music, dancing and celebration of Latin culture along a stretch of a busy street in Toronto’s west end quickly turned into a scene of chaos Saturday night as gunshots rang out, sending thousands of people, including parents with their young children, running away for safety.

Multiple witnesses described to CP24 what unfolded shortly after an unknown number of people exchanged gunfire in the middle of the Salsa on St. Clair festival. Police said two men died and several others were injured in the shooting.

Newstalk1010 anchor Heather Seaman, who has lived in the area for 15 years, described what she saw as a scene of “pandemonium.”

She wasn’t planning to attend the festival, which is why she walked through the alleyways on Saturday evening to avoid the crowd. However, she said she noticed that the loud music had stopped, so she went to see what was going on.

“Within seconds of me arriving, like 30 seconds, a minute, I just saw a wall of people running towards me. And I freaked out. I didn’t know what was going on,” Seaman recounted.

“People were just running, and there was panic. People had fear in their eyes.”

Seaman said she and a number of people ran into a nearby store and hid there. The owner, she recalled, quickly locked the store as more people were coming in to seek shelter.

“I got there at the right time. I guess, timing. I just happened to be there at the right time,” Seaman said.

After the commotion had died down, she walked along St. Clair and remembered feeling upset by what she saw.

“I saw parents consoling their children. There was a mother and her daughter, she must have been seven or eight years old, and she was freaking out. She was bawling. And I asked her, is she okay? And the mother said that she’s scared,” Seaman recounted.

“I heard another mother. She was telling her son, ‘When I tell you to run, you run.’ To me, that was shocking. It’s a family festival… to hear parents telling their kids to run from danger… You’re at a festival. You’re there to have fun.”

Other witnesses told CP24 that everyone was running and screaming as they got word about the shooting – scenes that were captured on video and posted on social media.

Police estimated there were 13,000 people at the festival at the time of the shooting.

No arrests have been made in connection with the incident. Two firearms were recovered.

Police said they are investigating three crime scenes.

‘We trampled over each other’

Ana Bettencourt was less than a block away from where the shooting occurred and remembered hearing what sounded like “muffled powerful fireworks.”

“And then everyone started running, which obviously then I did the same. We just trampled over each other and were running and took one of the side streets,” she said.

Shortly after, she heard from someone that there was a shooting and multiple people were injured.

Bettencourt said she went to another intersection to watch what was happening when gunshots rang out again.

“That was equally scary. If anything, it was scarier for me then. Myself, plus a number of people, of course, we started trampling around and running. (I) went to another alleyway and then ducked under a car, just waiting until the commotion died down,” she said.

“All I wanted to do was to get out of that area at whatever cost,” Bettencourt added.

‘Disappointing’ way to end Salsa

Jada Siadatan was standing outside the restaurant she works at when she said, “All of a sudden, everybody turned around and started running into the restaurant and screaming.”

“I didn’t know what was happening, and then everyone started screaming like there was a gunshot,” she said, and that’s when she ran back inside the restaurant, which is steps away from where gunfire erupted.

Siadatan’s co-worker, Greer Hansen, was at the back of the restaurant when suddenly people came running in there as well.

“It was kind of on both sides; we had a lot of people scared, everyone carted into our back room. So it was a lot of just commotion, making sure everyone was okay, making sure our patrons and other staff were fine,” Hansen said.

Both described it as a scary experience, given that they weren’t sure what was unfolding outside.

“I’m really still quite shaken up. It’s definitely left a really sad mood on the restaurant. It was a disappointing way to kind of end Salsa,” Hansen said.

“It was just the most surreal thing that’s ever happened to me,” Siadatan added.