GUNFIGHT RESULT OF TURF WAR: DRUG DEALER

'This Is The Street Life'

TORONTO - On the corner of Yonge and Dundas streets yesterday, the man
who seemed to have the best idea of what led to a violent Boxing Day
shootout was not wearing a police uniform.

Dressed in loose jeans, a heavy down jacket and a green "grinch hat,"
a 21-year-old who goes by the street name "Junior" said he knew the
men involved in the shooting -- and that it was the result of a turf
war between drug-dealing gangs.

"My boys tore them blocks up good," he said, surveying a scene
cordoned off by yellow police tape.

Junior says he sells drugs in the Yonge and Dundas area. He said the
shooting occurred when gang members followed a rival group from
Scarborough to the busy shopping area.

"It's due to the fact that people want other people's areas," he said.

"Someone comes from one section of town and they come to downtown.
They don't see anyone dealing on the street so they figure they can.
Meanwhile, someone else has been dealing there their whole life. And
they'll say, 'Why are you coming on to my street?' And they're going
to say 'get off my street' and if the guy says no, there is a gun
battle. Happens every day. This is the street life."

In an area crawling with police yesterday, Junior was approached
countless times by associates looking to "do business."

Standing in an alley, he filled in another man on what had happened
the night before.

"One of my boys got shot last night, dawg ... little black TD," he
said. "You know TD. Pop, pop, pop."

His friend, TD, was in intensive care at St. Michael's Hospital, he
said, and had been shot in the stomach.

Another 18-year-old man involved in the turf war was shot "here and
here and here," he said, pointing out spots on a reporter's chest and
rib cage.

"Some innocent people got shot in the process, but they hit their mark
because if they didn't, then I wouldn't have gotten a phone call," he
said. "I got a phone call at 6 p.m. Phone call said my friend is
intensive care. Get all your runners off the block. So I got 'em all
off the block."

Yesterday afternoon, Junior was also approached by several police
officers. He twice declined an officer's business card, but eventually
took it.

"I know who did this. I can't say nothing about this," he said later.
"That cop that just gave me his card could've got me killed."

Junior said he has been shot in the arm. During his time on the street
he has also been stabbed and burned with acid, he said.

Many of his friends and associates have been killed, he
said.

"We're sick of having to bury our best friends, brothers, sisters and
cousins. It hurts. Every day we do drugs to take the pain away," he
said. "You keep doing another line, another blast, popping another
pill, smoking a blunt, wishing to get away from it but you can't. And
if you try to walk away, step away, you get shot. Because you know too
much."

Junior said he wants order to return to the street, not through an end
to gangs or drug dealing but by an agreed-upon code among gangs.

"Old school. Calm, collected, no shooting each other over stupidness.
Working sh-- out and talking, negotiating things," he said.

Junior believes gun violence has escalated this year because senior
members of the gangs have been jailed or killed, leaving their young
disciples armed and in charge.

Although most of the victims of gang violence in Toronto have been
black, Junior said the drug wars are not confined to one race.

"It's all gangs," he said.

He said most of them are fighting over areas where crack, cocaine and
crystal meth are sold because each customer can bring in as much as
$3,000 a month.

"People are being shot over disrespect," he said. "One person
disrespects another person and they say, 'OK, you're dead,' " he said.
"You came here and you did what you are not supposed to do and you
tried to change the rules and that doesn't happen."