Mother of Finch-Martin Grove shooting victim spoke to him just moments before

Nathan Leigh always loved to be outdoors riding his bike in the fresh air of his Jamestown neighbourhood.

But on a clear, bright morning on Wednesday, doing just that, Leigh was brazenly shot when two men made an attempt on his life just steps away from his home. The 20-year-old is now in critical but stable condition, and is expected to recover. 

His mother, Tracey Leigh, phoned him to check up just moments before it happened.

"I hung up the phone, I went back to sleep and then I heard shots," she told CBC News. "I ran outside and I seen him on the ground with everyone holding him."

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Tracey Leigh, who did not want her face shown in this story, has lived in the area for 12 years and has always been worried about her son's safety. It's not for nothing.

Wednesday's shooting at 15 Pittsboro Drive near Finch Avenue West and Martin Grove Road is the latest in a string of violent incidents involving guns in the neighbourhood. It happened not far from where Candace Rochelle Bob, a 35-year-old woman who was pregnant, was killed last month by bullets that hit her in the back seat of a car. 

'Not accidental in any way'

Last July, 14-year-old Lecent Ross was gunned down in the same neighbourhood. In March 2015, stay-at-home-dad Donald Beckles was shot multiple times on the same street. And in February 2013, 15-year-old Jarvis Montague was also killed in a Jamestown housing complex.

Of the two suspects, Tracey knows at least one, 21-year-old Shamaury White. In fact, he lived just a few doors down.

On Thursday, Toronto police chief Mark Saunders confirmed White is known to police. CBC News has learned he has a lengthy criminal history. 

In November 2015, White was found guilty of a break and enter and sentenced to one month in jail, two years probation and a lifetime weapons ban.

In a news conference Thursday, Saunders told reporters the shooting was "very deliberate; not accidental in any way shape or form."

"We have some people on the streets right now that I have concerns about and I don't know what they're capable of doing," he said.

Lisa Leonce, 39, heard the shots ring out while in her living room with her baby.

'I could have been out there'

"At first I thought it was somebody hammering … but it went so quick so I got up and I went to my blinds."

When she saw Leigh on the floor, she couldn't contain herself.

"I was screaming because when I looked out the window and I seen who it was… I know him and I saw him the day before."

Now the nearly regular pace of neighbourhood violence has her thinking of leaving the area.  

"I don't normally go out and watch when I hear gunshots but I thought it was too close ... It's scary because I'm always out there with my babies … I could have been out there," Leonce said.

On Thursday, police continued to canvas the area for information on the suspects.

'I need him home'

A man in a white shirt seen on video of the incident remains unidentified.

"The community is very upset, outraged really," Toronto police superintendent Ron Taverner told CBC News.

"For something to happen at 9:30 in the morning here… with a school literally 100 feet away, I mean it's disgusting, it's brazen, it's callous."

After several hours of surgery, Leigh is now conscious. 

"Right now he's awake, he knows who I am," Tracey Leigh said. She said she even managed to get a laugh out of her son.

Butwhat she wants now is for the men responsible to be caught and punished for what they did.

"They can't get away with this," she said.

And she's counting down the minutes until her son recovers.

"I need him home."