A memorial at a Toronto west end subway station serves as a stark reminder of the latest violent incident that took place at the TTC that left a woman dead last week.
Vanessa Kurpiewska, 31, died in hospital after she was stabbed to death by a man she did not know at High Park station shortly after 2pm on December 8.
She was one of two victims in the random attack that day. The other, a 37-year-old woman, was treated for her non-life-threatening injuries and she was released from the hospital.
Flowers and messages of condolence addressed to “Nessa” now occupy the space next to the tracks that became a crime scene less than a week ago.
“My life has been enriched by knowing you, my heart already misses you and my smile is brighter by remembering you,” reads one message. “We love you” and “If I had my life to live over again, I would find you sooner, my friend,” said others.
A suspect was taken into custody at the scene after the incident and charged with first degree murder and attempted murder. Police said the attacker did not know his victims.
in a GoFundMe Campaign established after Kurpiewska’s death, she is remembered as a “very independent” woman who loved fashion, concerts and meeting new people.
His death marks the third to occur on TTC property this year alone.
In June, a 28-year-old woman died in hospital after being doused with a flammable substance and set on fire on a bus outside Kipling station. Two months before that, a 21-year-old international student was shot outside the entrance to Sherbourne station and transported to hospital, where he later died.
In addition, there have been a number of other random attacks reported across the network in 2022, including separate incidents in which a passenger was suffocated unconscious and mugged at Pioneer Village station, another was stabbed in the neck at St George station and a woman was pushed onto the tracks while waiting for a subway train at the Bloor-Yonge station.
In the latter case, the passenger sued the TTC for negligence after the April incident. In response, the TTC said at the time that the passenger was standing too close to the tracks and she should not have been traveling alone on public transportation “when she knew or should have known that it was not safe for her to do so.”
All of those incidents, and others, have led to an increase in online police visibility in recent months that Mayor John Tory says continues to this day.
“We have already taken measures in the past and even in the current circumstances to increase the presence of different types of people; special agents, street-to-home outreach workers, police officers in the system, and that kind of work will continue,” Tory said at a news conference Friday.
Random violence is not limited to passengers.
Last Monday, a TTC employee was mugged and robbed by a masked man while on duty on the Long Branch Loop in Etobicoke in broad daylight, according to Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113, one of the unions that represents transit workers. frontline TTC workers.
At the time, ATU Local 113 said the attack was the second on a TTC worker in less than a week and called on the commission to “do more to prevent all forms of violence against transit workers.”
To that end, Tory said the city is currently discussing including additional resources in next year’s budget to further enhance the aforementioned web presence adding that more needs to be done to address mental health and ” state of the law”: two factors he believes will help ameliorate the “broader problem of violence” in the city.
Tory said he planned to sit down with Toronto Police Chief James Ramer and TTC CEO Rick Leary this week to discuss those options further.
