TORONTO — Pulin Shah feels a sense of unease every time he passes the corner in his Toronto neighbourhood where a mother of two was killed by a stray bullet earlier this month.
It could have been him that was caught in the gunfire, he says, or anyone in the Leslieville neighbourhood he calls home.
For Shah and several other local residents, the recent death has magnified concerns about what they say has been a rise in violence and drug use around a supervised consumption site in a community centre near the shooting scene.
“Ever since the safe injection site has been started, that corner has always been a group of people hanging around there creating unnecessary violence and nuisance,” Shah says.
Police have said 44-year-old Karolina Huebner-Makurat, called Caroline by friends and family, was hit by a bullet after a group of three men got into an altercation nearby and two of them fired guns at each other. One man has since been charged and police are searching for two others.
Investigators have given no indication that the shooting was linked to the nearby South Riverdale Community Health Centre, which houses consumption and harm reduction programs.
But Shah says he and other residents have been worried about what they say is concerning activity around the centre, including what they claim are drug deals outside and dealers who allegedly prey on vulnerable individuals trying to use the supervised consumption site.
Some other residents say, however, that the supervised consumption site has helped vulnerable members of the community while reducing the amount of drug activity in parks.
Toronto police crime statistics show the area of South Riverdale – which Leslieville is a part of – has seen a nearly 18 per cent increase in assaults compared to this time last year, while there has been one homicide in the area every year since 2021.
Paula Fletcher, the city councillor for the area, said she has heard residents’ community safety concerns – both before and after Huebner-Makurat’s death.
She said she’s asked the South Riverdale Community Health Centre to develop a plan with the neighbourhood and police to address those concerns.
“I have been sharing these concerns with the SRCHC, who has an obligation to listen and take action on the community’s concerns,” she said.
Shortly after Huebner-Makurat’s death, the community centre’s board issued a statement expressing its grief over what happened and saying it was ramping up security.
“We join others in being deeply troubled by this level of violence in our community. This terrible incident took place near our facility and has affected the whole community,” it wrote.
“To address those impacts and emerging needs, our team is committed to accelerating community safety activities, many of which were underway before this tragic event occurred.”
The centre said it was positioning a community safety team outside the facility for a week, monitoring the effectiveness of that and establishing a new safety committee, among other actions. It did not respond to requests for further comment.
Jeri Brown, who lives in Leslieville, said residents have had several meetings with the community centre – before this month’s shooting – where they’ve voiced their worries.
“We see drug deals, we see people shooting up drugs in the laneways behind our houses, we find drug accessories all over the streets,” said Brown, a public relations professional who has become a spokeswoman for a resident group trying to bring attention to the concerns.
Some residents in the group are calling for increased security measures around the community centre, while some want a review of the centre’s operating criteria given its close proximity to a school. Others want it removed from the area entirely.
But not all residents feel the same way.
Kimberley Radmacher, who has lived in Leslieville for 10 years, says the neighbourhood has gentrified rapidly since she moved to the area and the community centre’s supervised consumption site has been a benefit.
“My experience has been there’s been less types of activities that most of us don’t like, like needles in parks,” she says. “It’s a city. You see minor drug dealing going on, and it’s just not been a thing that I clutch my pearls about.”
“I do not have children,” she added. “So I have a different perspective than I think some of my neighbours.”
Radmacher said she was unaware that some of her neighbours believed the supervised consumption site was a problem.
“It’s emotional and upsetting, but I’m hoping we can address it without having to vilify the people that are needing a service that saves their lives,” she says.
Brown, who was speaking for some concerned community members, says residents have a shared goal of ensuring the community is safe for everyone.
“We want to find a solution that keeps the most vulnerable people safe,” she says. “Like families and children and vulnerable people suffering with addiction issues who rely on that program because they’re not safe either right now.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2023.
— with files from William Eltherington.
