Crime at YCC #42
The condominium complex is plagued with crime. The complex is so large
and there are so many renters moving in and out—often at night—that it
is impossible to keep track of everyone.
Petty stuff
The three buildings suffer from vandalized cars, graffiti and vandalism
in the hallways, the odd fire started in the hallways and garbage
thrown over the balconies. Frequent false fire alarms cost the
corporation over $50,000 a year.
The residents normally ignore the drug users in the hallways and
staircases and in return the drug users do not threaten them. As one
resident told a reporter, it’s a required live and let live attitude.
More serious crime
Residents have had their keys stolen from them when they open the lobby
doors and there has been petty theft in the common areas.
Hoodlums
It is well known that a street gang was operating in this condominium
complex and in the three condos just to the north of them along with
other small-time criminals.
Drug dealing and prostitution is conducted in some of the units. A few
residents and the security guards have been threatened by having guns
pointed at them.
Over the last several years the security guards have made 300 hundred
arrests on the property. Several have been injured on the job. Some
time ago, the security office was shot-up when guards were inside.
On Sunday 31 March 2013, a stolen car raced into the basement
parking-garage with over 20 police cars in hot pursuit. The driver made
his good his escape.
It took the police hours before they were given access to view footage
from the condo’s CCTV cameras.
Bloodshed
A 24-year-old Somali, Abdikadir Khan was gunned down in the early
morning hours of Sunday, 20 March 2011 at 320 Dixon Rd. He lay in the
apartment complex's stairwell for eleven hours before the police were
called later that afternoon. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
Police believe he was targeted.
On the morning of 08 July 2012, police responded to call for the sound
of gunshots at 320 Dixon Rd. Ahmed Yusuf shot at a group of men with a
handgun. All shots missed the men.
On 04 February 2013, Toronto police arrested a 21-year-old man after
shots were fired around 4 a.m. Police and the canine unit were called
in to track down the suspect. He was eventually arrested near Wincott
Park, less than a kilometre away. A gun was also recovered.
On 06 February 2013, an 18-year-old man was stabbed several times in a
320 Dixon Road stairwell.
Early morning on 21 May 2013, shots rang out in the 17th-floor hallway
at 320 Dixon Rd. A man in his 20s suffered a gunshot wound to his leg
in what was described later as "friendly fire". Several days after the
shooting, the Toronto media learned the holder of the video that
allegedly shows Rob Ford smoking crack also lives on the 17th floor of
320 Dixon Rd.
Condo owner Radouane Jaghtite, who moved to Canada from Morocco nearly
two decades ago, has lived in the Dixon high-rise since 2009, paying
$47,000 for a two-bedroom unit whose ceiling was stained brown with
marijuana smoke. Mr. Jaghtite, 36, gutted the apartment, installing
hardwood floors, a drop ceiling with pot lights, new kitchen cupboards
and a Jacuzzi tub.
He says his sister cried when she learned he was moving with his wife
to Dixon. She was worried for their safety and their investment. “You
have to start somewhere,” Mr. Jaghtite said.
The couple is saving for a house near family in Maple, north of
Toronto. They don’t want to raise their boys in Dixon.
“You see 13-year-old girls holding a bottle of alcohol,” notes Amina
Allaoui, Mr. Jaghtite’s wife. Her husband adds: “In some apartments,
you can see 30 people sitting around and they’re smoking marijuana. I’m
telling you this is not young people. This is old people. Who is going
to look after the kids? The kids look after themselves.”
Dixon
City Bloods
It was only after the police raid on Thursday 13 June 2013,
that the public learnt that a street gang
called the Dixon City Bloods
operated out of 320 Dixon Road.
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