Shooting death on Highway 401 creates traffic chaos
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 | 8:14 PM ET
CBC News
Traffic ground to a halt on a stretch of Highway 401 in Toronto on Tuesday
afternoon, as police investigated a shooting that ended with a body being
dumped from a moving vehicle.

Police said they are investigating the possibility that Tuesday's shooting
was retaliatory, after an 18-year-old man was gunned down in broad daylight
Monday. (Submitted by Lee Rynar)
Toronto police Const. Tony Vella said it appeared the victim had been shot
before being pushed onto the eastbound collector lanes of Highway 401 at
about 2:45 p.m.

"There is a body there," Vella said in an interview. "It appears that
someone has been shot . It's been reported the victim was pushed out of the
car."

The CBC's John Lancaster said there were also reports the man could have
been chased along the side of the highway before being shot.

The shooting closed the eastbound collector lanes of the 401 near Keele
Street, and by 4 p.m. ET, traffic was backed up for kilometres. Congestion
also spilled over onto Highway 400 as commuters headed into the rush-hour
period.

Local television footage showed fire trucks, ambulances and police cruisers
gathered at the scene where a body lay on the road covered by a tarp.

Lancaster said he saw emergency officials trying to perform CPR on a man.
The victim, whose name has not been released, was later pronounced dead at
the scene, Vella said.

Traffic was backed up along Highway 401 as police investigated the suspected
homicide. (CBC)
Police said the victim's body had been riddled with multiple gunshots.

Yellow police tape cordoned off the collector lanes while Toronto police and
the Ontario Provincial Police investigated, work that was expected to take
hours.

"What normally is a very busy stretch of highway is now been transformed
into a crime scene," Lancaster said.

He said police are investigating the possibility that Tuesday's shooting was
connected to a fatal shooting on Monday, in which a man was gunned down at a
bus stop on Eglinton Avenue West.

The victim has been identified as Stephen Barton, 18, police said in a
statement released Tuesday.

A champagne-coloured Lexus seen fleeing from Tuesday's crime scene,
reportedly with a woman at the wheel, is registered to the same Eglinton
Avenue West complex where Monday's murder victim lived, Lancaster said.

Police have identified Stephen Barton, 18, as the victim of Monday's
homicide. (Toronto Police Service)
"Police are saying they are looking into the possibility this was a revenge
shooting, a tit-for-tat shooting after an 18-year-old man was shot not far
from here yesterday," Lancaster said, reporting from the scene of the
Highway 401 shooting.

A Lexus with the same licence plate as the one speeding away from Tuesday's
crime scene was later discovered in a parking lot near Albion and Weston
Roads. It had been set on fire but was still intact when police arrived.

Officers, including those from the forensic identification unit, were
searching the grounds of the neighbouring Humber Valley Golf Club for a
suspect early Tuesday evening.

Adding to the traffic woes Tuesday was an accident in the westbound lanes of
the 401 that happened shortly before the shooting.