york university residence shooting

Toronto university student's dorm window shot out and now they're raising the rent

A York University student claims that someone fired a bullet through the window of their residence in March, in what they claim is just the latest case in a campus crime wave that has some feeling unsafe.

But law enforcement contends that it was just a BB gun used in the March 12 incident at The Quad Student Residences, and this was being treated as a "mischief" investigation.

Mahan Shirzad tells blogTO, "I was shot at on March 12 while sitting inside my room in one of the residences."

Shirzad says it's part of a growing problem that includes "multiple armed robberies on campus every month as well."

On the day of the incident, Shirzad says, "I was initially sitting down in the living room doing my thing, then I heard a big bang and heard the window cracking. I went to investigate the window and my friend jumped and made me lay low on the ground that someone had shot at us."

"So we had to [go] prone and move away from the windows for a while until the police came. Investigators came and took statements, but we still don't know who and why it happened."

"Two shots were fired at the sixth-floor living room window and bedroom of our residence," explains Shirzad, the damaged window evident in photos and videos shared on social media.

Witnesses described a loud bang, however, the Toronto Star reported shortly after the incident that police are treating this as a BB gun shooting.

Detailed views of the hole appear smaller than your standard bullet, and consistent with this BB gun explanation, though that verdict would not account for the loud bang heard by Shirzad and the other witness present.

Though there is some disagreement as to the type of weapon used, Shirzad believes that "the living room shot was aiming at my head, trying for a headshot."

york university residence shooting

Police inspect the shattered window.

Shirzad says that despite all that has happened, "we have not been approached by anyone at York or the residence, and meanwhile, they are increasing the rent at my building more and more every year."

"The police still don't know who it was, and we have armed robberies every month on campus as well."

Photos by

Mahan Shirzad


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