Toronto Murder#3-2008-Hou Chang Mao-Plea For TIPS

Toronto Police Service Inspector Peter Yuen makes plea to the community to call Toronto Police Service Homicide Squad Detectives Pauline Gray or Ian Briggs at telephone # 416-808-7400 with witness or suspect information on Toronto's 3rd murder of 2008 - Victim Hou Chang Mao.

Anonymous information can be called in to Toronto Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477), toll free anywhere in Canada at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online by clicking on 'SUBMIT A TIP' on the website www.222tips.com . Your anonymity in calling or sending an anonymous encrypted online tip through the TiPsoft software on 222tips.oom is protected by the Supreme Court of Canada. A language line service will be used to connect any caller to Crime Stoppers immediately to an interpreter in the language that the caller is most comfortable talking in.

Police Identify Innocent Bystander
Killed On Street
Friday January 18, 2008
His name was Hou Chang Mao and he was the father of two children - an 18-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son.

Toronto Police have identified the 47-year-old as the latest innocent bystander killed on the streets of Toronto. Cops say Mao was working in the Fu Yao Supermarket on Gerrard near Broadview when two men came onto the scene and began shooting at each other. They either didn't know or didn't care that the hardworking victim was standing nearby.

"As Mr. Mao stood outside stacking oranges on the front display, two shots rang out, mortally wounding the father of two," explains Det. Sgt. Pauline Gray. "He staggered back to his place of employment and fell." He was rushed to St. Michael's Hospital but died minutes later in the emergency room.

Autopsy results show he died from a gunshot wound to the torso.

Mao was a Toronto resident who had only recently returned to the country. He had just brought his daughter over from China to join him, an event both had been looking forward to, as part of a new life in Canada. Police say he has an extended family here and all of them all devastated by his shocking loss.

They don't know what sparked the dispute but they do have some clues - two black men were seen fleeing the area in a silver-coloured car with a shiny, silver round-shaped grille. Gray notes that last description is an important clue. The grille was "very shiny - more shiny than the rest of the car."

Detectives don't think they're the killers, but may have been the people who were being shot at. And they're urging them and the gunmen to come forward before detectives locate them.

And they have good reason to think they will. Police have a lot of good security video and feel sure they've captured their images, prompting this warning from Gray. "I've got you on camera. Somewhere, somehow in the hundreds of hours, we'll find you in there. This is your opportunity to come forward first."

In the meantime, she's hoping area residents will provide clues they may not know they had, and insists anything - no matter how insignificant - will be useful.




"It was very busy at 6 o'clock. I can tell you that the streets were full, it was like Manhattan. And there are many, many people out there who saw what happened. They don't have to know the whole story, they just have to see one tiny piece."

Police promise the public they won't rest until they find the people behind the brazen act of cowardice.

" We're ... doing everything we can to apprehend the suspects, and my message to the Chinese community at large in the Toronto area, this is time for action. This is time as we as a group of citizens, we need to work with the police closely," advises Insp. Peter Yuen. "Only with your help we can bring these people to justice, and also allow our officers to do their jobs, and I implore the Chinese community, and other communities to come forward to assist us."




Gray is angry that the triggermen didn't care about others. "Whatever the perceived slight or disagreement between the two groups, surely they cannot justify or walk away from the fact that they, in their reckless actions, killed an innocent man."

The evidence of the ferocity of the short but dangerous dispute is everywhere - bullet holes dot some windows and parked cars, mute testimony to the randomness of the gunfire. Cops were still on the scene the morning after, and a stretch of the busy roadway remained sealed off as the investigation continues.

Those who live in the area are stunned by the violence and realize anyone could have been hit. "It's just like part of life," one man sighs. "Unfortunately, that's the way things are. Like it's kind of a hit and miss thing. Hopefully, it won't happen to me."


"All I saw was the lights flickering off the walls," recalls Neil Bowdring. "I come out and there's some guy was shot!" (more)

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[kz6079smithw]

apes belong in the zoo, not chinatown.

RIP hou chang mao

[miltonhowe]

you do realize that this video is neither done in korean nor useless. at least have the sense to check your facts before you comment

[jeffmadecrack]

yah man Your from a better generation tho, my old man says that too, its actually sketchy now...still the bets fuckin city in canada though

[Normalman50]

Anyone who says Toronto has a "Black Problem" are wrong. Toronto has a major problem with a particular nationality "which happens to be black". "Ah Mon"

[phrydoom]

I agree it's imported also.

[Normalman50]

As a man who was born in Toronto back in the 40s, I can assure you that the bulk of Toronto's crime is imported. I remember when we had one murder a year, and the murderer was hung in public at the Don Jail.

[phrydoom]

Kill everyone in Toronto!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wordtoyermoms]

What's even scarier is the fact that people are fooled by this shit.

Don't get me wrong...any murder is an horrific event, as was the murder of Hou Chang Mao, but to say that Toronto has gone to hell when all evidence points to the contrary is evidence that people do buy the line of bullshit the news media sells them.

[powerfulSubtlety]

This is true. It's pretty scare though, how the media can scare people.

[1moreastronaut]

That's funny, 'cause the crime and murder rates per capita have gone down in Toronto in the past two decades.

[BigOnes98]

But what is the point of that? The law will just let them back out onto the streets in like 2 years if that. Our laws need to be enforced, sentences need to be served fully. Bring back the death penalty, these murderers can't be reformed its been proven time and time again.

[BigOnes98]

Toronto has gone to hell.

Used to be a nice city, not anymore.