'He was dying': Neighbour recounts Toronto shooting victim's pain as 911 hold stretched on

Kevin was watching TV in his pyjamas inside his Weston neighbourhood home Saturday night, when he heard the crack of gunshots ring out nearby.

He rushed outside to find two teenagers trying to carry another teen's body while yelling for help.

Kevin called 911. But instead of an operator, he got stuck on hold.

"We didn't know what we were supposed to do. What we did was what we thought was best, because we felt left alone at this point. He was bleeding out — he got shot in the chest," Kevin said. CBC News is using a pseudonym in place of Kevin's real name over concerns for his safety.

"I didn't see much blood, but I saw his eyes. He was in shock, and he was dying."

Days a 15-year-old was fatally shot near Emmett Avenue and Jane Street, Kevin is left wondering if a faster emergency services response would have made a difference in potentially saving the boy's life.

"It's ridiculous. A 15-year-old died, and no one is answering," he said.

"I was on hold for like 10 minutes."

A young victim

Officers were first called about the shooting around 10 p.m. In a news release, Toronto police said the boy was later taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A suspect took off before police got there, investigators say. The teen's death marks Toronto's 14th homicide of the year.

Kevin told CBC News that when he first saw what was happening that night, he ran across the street and helped bring the boy to his neighbour's house. 

They laid the victim on his side as he was having trouble breathing and tried to comfort him while telling him to stay awake, Kevin said. The teen had a medical mask on at the time, he said — and when they removed it, Kevin was taken aback by just how young he was.

"When I took the mask off him so he could help breathe a bit, he was … like my son's age. I was in shock," he said.

The group eventually hailed down a car and got the boy in the back before he was taken to a nearby hospital, Kevin said.

"[It] doesn't do emergency, but we didn't know what else to do," he said.

Toronto police told CBC News in an email that the first "sound of gunshots" call for the incident came in at 10:01 p.m. That caller waited on hold for six minutes and 43 seconds to speak with an operator, police said.

Emergency crews arrived on scene at 10:11 p.m., the email said. Police officials said they received approximately six calls about the shooting.

CBC Toronto requested an interview with a representative from the service's 911 call centre for more details about what happened that night, but didn't receive a response.

Wait time unacceptable, advocate says

John Sewell, co-ordinator of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, a community group meant to spark debate around police policy, told CBC News that a 911 call wait time of almost seven minutes is "disgusting.

"When you're phoning an emergency service for something that's a serious emergency, you want to be dealt with quickly," he said.

"Being put on hold for seven minutes is not acceptable."

The National Emergency Association (NENA) has set the industry standard at answering 90 per cent of calls within 15 seconds. 

Hold times for 911 calls have been an issue in Toronto in recent years. Average wait times on hold for an operator in the city went down in the first half of 2024 after climbing to the longest average wait in at least five years in 2023.

Sewell said he believes the problem can be traced back to management and oversight.

"Maybe this young person's life could have been saved, I don't know," he said. 

"But in any case, you shouldn't have to wait that long in an emergency."