Overview
- Officers were called around 3:34 p.m. on December 23 to the Highland Creek Trail and Old Kingston Road area and found Shivank Avasthi, 20, with a gunshot wound; he was pronounced dead at the scene.
- Police say the suspect or suspects fled before they arrived, no description has been released, and the case is being treated as Toronto’s 41st homicide of 2025.
- The University of Toronto Scarborough issued a safety alert and briefly locked down areas near the Highland Creek valley as police searched the vicinity and closed pathways.
- The Consulate General of India in Toronto expressed “deep anguish” over the killing and said it is coordinating support for Avasthi’s family in consultation with local authorities.
- Accounts differ on whether Avasthi was a doctoral or third-year undergraduate life sciences student, and the death has intensified student concerns about lighting, patrols and security on and around the trail network; a separate recent homicide of Indian national Himanshi Khurana also features in community discussions.