The number of tow truck-related shootings that Toronto police have responded to in 2025 now stands at 13 after another two incidents over the past 24 hours.
In an email, Const. Viktor Sarudi told CTV News Toronto they are aware of five firearm discharges and eight shootings linked to the tow truck industry so far this year.
Toronto police, however, said they’re not commenting further on the situation at this time.
Last night, just after 10:20 p.m., police say two people were shot at a tow yard in the city’s west end, near Weston Road and St. Clair Avenue West.
A man in his 50s suffered life-threatening injuries, while the other victim - a man in his 20s - was seriously injured, but is expected to survive.
The suspect fled the area in a dark-coloured sedan.
About an hour later, a tow truck driver, also identified as a man in his 20s, was shot while sitting in a car wash bay at a gas station near Lawrence Avenue East and Warden Avenue in Scarborough.
He was transported to hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
The suspect fled in a vehicle.
“They came out of nowhere, tried to attack him. When he was running, they shot him in the back,” witness Arjun Rajeev told CTV News Toronto.
Rajeev had just finished his shift at the gas station when he hear what he initially thought was exhaust backfiring, but in the end turned out to be gunshots.
He said ran outside to help the victim, who had been shot in the leg and and was screaming for help, for someone to call 9-1-1.
“[The gunshots] sounded like continuous rounds, continuous rounds, not a pistol,” he said.
“When I was applying pressure on it, I just said to him ‘Relax, the cops are on the way’. … I asked him, ‘Who shot you? Why did they shoot you?’ He said he didn’t know anything.”
Rajeev said he believes he saw two suspects flee the area in a black SUV.
Toronto police said in an email to CP24 that it is too early to tell if the two separate incidents are connected.
Back in January, there were three tow truck-related shootings in Scarborough in just over 24 hours.
The brother of a victim one of those shootings told CTV News Toronto at the time that it could have been much more tragic if not for the bullet-proof vest worn by his sibling.
“There’s something definitely wrong with that,” Professional Towing Association of Ontario President Gary Vandelheuvel told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday, adding that no one should be going to work every day fearing for their life and having to “wear a bullet proof vest to go do your job.”
Vandelheuvel said gun violence is not representative of the “mainstream towing industry” and is “not something that makes any sense.”
“To hear this, that people are being shot, customers are being shot within our industry, is just extremely shocking and scary,” he said.
On average a tow can cost a customer roughly from $500 to $1,000, he said, which he said he “doesn’t believe for a second” justifies people shooting at others.
“Somewhere there’s something else in this that we’re not seeing on the ground level,” Vandelheuvel said, pointing to “something that is bringing in funds that doesn’t make sense at the base level.”
Industry leader says businesses ‘do their very best to follow the rules’
Vandelheuvel went on to say that they’ve been at the table with the government discussing regulating the industry, adding that while there is some room for inprovement, the rules in place are overwhelmingly being complied with.
“The majority of the towing industry, they take on the regulations whether they like it or not. They’re there. They take them on, they accept it, they do their very best to follow the rules. This is just an outside sanction from within our industry that don’t really care,” he said.
CTV News Toronto’s Public Safety Specialist Chris Lewis said gun violence in the towing industry is an “ongoing battle,” one that has “peaks of violence” as seen by the recent “flare ups” in Toronto and other parts of the GTA.
“This is one of those peaks,” he said, adding because this industry is such a lucrative one, competition is high and conflicts are bound to arise as towing companies and drivers fight over turf.
“Ontario’s been trying to regulate this industry, but it’s been really difficult thing for them to regulate and control.”
With files from CTV News Toronto’s Allison Hurst
