Police say the victim shot and killed in Mississauga’s Malton area on Tuesday night was a 14-year-old girl.
Peel Regional Police say that they were called to a building in the Darcel Avenue and Etude Drive, north of Derry Road East, just after 9 p.m. to check on a person’s wellbeing.
A resident of the building reportedly found a 14-year-old girl in the stairwell on the third floor suffering from a gunshot wound.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
“This is being investigated as a homicide, however, the exact circumstances surrounding this incident are still unclear,” investigators said on Wednesday.
Const. Heather Cannon said the girl and her family lived in the building where she was found.
The victim has been identified by her family as 14-year-old Taffash Riley. Along with her father, mother and brother, she moved to Canada from Jamaica in 2012.
Riley is being remembered as someone who deeply loved her family. She was also known for her love of cooking, her family said.
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board said the victim was in Grade 9.
"The DPCDSB is saddened to learn about the tragic loss of life of a Grade 9 member of our Ascension of our Lord Catholic Secondary School community," board spokesperson Bruce Campbell told CP24. "As a Catholic community, we pray for the young woman, her family and friends."
The board added that the flag at Riley's school has been lowered to half-mast.
No suspect information has been released.
A GoFundMe page has been created by the neighbours to raise funds to help the family bring her body back home to Jamaica.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call police at 905-453-2121, ext. 3205.
