Paroled man charged with first-degree murder in U of T campus shooting
A man on parole in Toronto is facing a first-degree murder charge after police allege he carried out a “planned and deliberate” shooting that killed an international student.
A man on parole in Toronto is facing a first-degree murder charge after police allege he carried out a “planned and deliberate” shooting that killed an international student on a busy University of Toronto Scarborough campus trail just days before Christmas.
Babatunde Afuwape, 28, was arrested last week for a parole violation and is now accused of fatally shooting 20-year-old Shivank Avasthi, a third-year University of Toronto student from India. Investigators say the attack may have been random.
Toronto police say the victim and the accused did not know each other and that no motive has yet been identified.
“We have not yet found a motive for why Shivank was targeted,” homicide Det.-Sgt. Stacey McCabe told reporters on Wednesday.
Avasthi was shot on Valley Trail, a well-used pedestrian path on the Scarborough campus, at about 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 23. The gunman fled before officers arrived.
“He was young, bright and had his whole life ahead of him,” McCabe said.
Investigators believe the accused was on campus for about an hour before the shooting and was not a student.
“I don’t believe that he was a student,” McCabe said. “I think that he was looking to target someone.”
“It is our belief that this was a planned and deliberate act by the accused,” McCabe said, adding that investigators believe Afuwape went to the campus with the intent to kill, though how Avasthi was selected remains unclear.
“We believe that he was there to kill somebody — that’s our belief,” she said.
Police have released an image of the accused taken on the day of the shooting and are urging anyone who may have seen or interacted with him on campus that day to come forward.
Afuwape was taken into custody by officers from Toronto police’s 55 Division on Dec. 28 for a parole breach, five days after the shooting. He has since been charged with first-degree murder.
The investigation is ongoing.
I would love to see his rap sheet. The judicial system is corrupt. They will do everything possible not to charge an immigrant with a felony. This would mean deportation, and they can't let that happen.
Those who engineered and approved the parole of this miscreant have to be held culpable as accessories to any crimes the miscreant commits after release. Any person on probation or parole becomes a "ward of the state". After all those folks enabled this man to commit further crimes.
The Catch and release legal industry that farms violent criminals for profit has to be held culpable for the any crime their "wards" (people on probation or parole) commit.