Toronto Police reported another violent incident Sunday night on the TTC, the second in a pair of weekend stabbings — including one that cost a 16-year-old victim his life — that have left Toronto transit riders shocked and concerned for their own well-being.

Police responded to reports of a man stabbed onboard a TTC bus just after midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning at Keele and Donald Street, near Eglinton Avenue West.

Officers arriving on the scene located a man with serious injuries who was transported to the hospital for treatment. The suspect fled the scene, and police state that the investigation is currently ongoing.

Police have not identified the victim or released a suspect description.

STABBING:
Keele St & Donald Ave
- reports of a man stabbed onboard a TTC bus @TTCNotices
- police o/s
- officers located a man with injuries
- @TorontoMedics o/s - took the patient to hospital with serious injuries
- suspect fled
- ongoing investigation#GO671006
^al

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) March 27, 2023

The pair of attacks came less than 48 and just over three kilometres hours apart from one another, raising longstanding concerns about safety on the TTC, particularly in the form of increasingly random acts of violence.

Has it even been 24 hours since the 16-year-old was killed at the Keele subway station?

— Moistly Harmless (@moistlyharmless) March 27, 2023

This latest attack came the day after the killing of 16-year-old Gabriel Magalhaes, where a 22-year-old man experiencing homelessness, identified by police as Jordan O'Brien-Tobin, approached the victim and stabbed him in what was said to be a completely unprovoked attack.

This is so scary, nobody is taking the subway thinking it's going to be their last day. This city is a former shell of what it used to be. Now we're just the Canadian equivalent of #NYC or should I say #Gotham

— Aisha -The (Edgar Allan) Poet (@AishaAllanPoet) March 27, 2023

Some commenters on social media note the timing of these attacks, which come just two weeks after the rollback of police patrols on the TTC, introduced to curb concerns about incidents exactly like these.

Time for Toronto Police transit unit back on patrol to have TTC safety

— Jorge Costa… (@jorgeco37551116) March 27, 2023

Others argue that police patrols on public transit do little to put even a dent in crime, a stance backed up by data from a similar experiment in NYC where, despite massive increases in police patrols, subway crime increased by 30 per cent in that city during 2022, outpacing the non-transit increase in major crimes of just eight per cent.

With or without police, there is a clear sense that people are thinking twice about how they plan their commutes as the city reels from the violent effects of an unaddressed mental health crisis.