One year ago: Milton business owner among those killed during shooting rampage

Today is the one-year anniversary of a shooting rampage that left two men in Milton among the deceased.

Shakeel Ashraf, a father of three and owner of MK Auto Repair, and a 28-year-old international exchange student who was working part time at the shop, were shot and killed.

The killing spree that claimed the two Milton men’s lives and injured another, began about an hour earlier in Mississauga.

Andrew Hong, a 22-year veteran of the Toronto Police force, was ambushed and executed by a man who had lain in wait at a Mississauga Tim Hortons in Mississauga for two hours waiting for a cop, any cop, to show up.

Following the murder of Hong, Sean Petrie, 40, tried unsuccessfully to grab Hong’s gun. Failing that, he stole a vehicle, and drove to the Milton body shop where he had been employed at one time.

Petrie eventually wound up in Hamilton, where he was shot and killed by Halton Regional Police during an attempted arrest.

One year later, Hong’s colleagues paid tribute via social media to the officer and man they knew affectionately as “Honger.”

“Today, we remember Constable Andrew Hong. On this day in 2022, while participating in joint motorcycle squad training exercise with Peel Regional Police officers, he was senselessly shot and killed. We remember those who gave their lives in service of others,” Toronto Police said in a post to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.

The post garnered numerous comments from both police officers and the community at large.

“Not just a great loss to the service, but to his community, friends and family as well,” one person wrote.

“A life well lived, but much too short. It’s a reminder to us all to do the things we love, to tell the ones we love that we love them. This should be a reminder to everyone that life is short … seize the day, my friends. Honger would have wanted that,” another wrote in response.