Edward Chikosa was walking to work on the morning of Aug 18 when he saw two people in a car on his street. Before he could say good morning, he said, they pulled their shirts over their faces and opened fire.
The bullet tore through the left side of his face, shattering his jaw and knocking out several teeth, but somehow missed his brain and spine. "It's just a miracle that I'm still here," Chikosa told CTV News Toronto.
The shooting happened around 7:30 a.m. outside his townhouse complex at 55 Silverstone Drive in North Etobicoke, on the lawn of the home he shares with his two kids and his mother, across from Highfield Junior Public School. Police searched for two masked suspects last seen fleeing in a black SUV, and marked several shell casings as evidence.
Chikosa's 10 year old son Junjun was woken by the gunfire and initially thought it was fireworks, later telling a detective he'd heard four or five shots.
Chikosa believes he was mistaken for someone else. "I'm not a gangster. I'm a family man with kids just trying to live a normal life," he said.
Weeks later, gunfire struck the home next door, leaving bullet holes in the doorway. No one was hurt, but the second shooting left Chikosa shaken and calling on police and the city to act. "This should be a state of emergency," he said.
Police say shootings in Toronto have fluctuated recently, from 492 in 2019 down to 344 in 2023, spiking to 462 in 2024, then dropping to 263 in 2025. Chikosa's neighbourhood alone has already seen six shootings this year.