Const.  Andrew Hong, a 22-year veteran of the Toronto police, was 48 years old.
He leaves behind a wife, two teenage children and his parents.
Hong was one of two people shot in a shooting spree in the GTA yesterday afternoon with the same suspect.
Another person, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, has died after a shooting at a Milton auto repair shop.  Three others were also seriously injured after being shot in the two incidents.
The unidentified shooter, who was called “armed and dangerous” in an active shooting emergency alert issued by police, died after an interaction with Halton police at a Hamilton cemetery late Monday afternoon.
Hong, who was a member of the Toronto police Traffic Services Unit – Motor Vehicle Squad, was in Mississauga on Monday for a joint training exercise with members of the Toronto and York regional police forces.  He had reportedly stopped at a Tim Horton’s for lunch around 2:15 p.m., where he was fatally shot at close range in what Peel Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah described as an “ambush attack.”  Hong died at the scene.
Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg met Hong professionally at work and called him a “very close” friend.
“Andrew was larger than life.  Physically he was larger than life and his personality was in the room before he was.  … We had a lot of laughs,” he told CP24 Monday night shortly after a gathering of hundreds of colleagues to pay their respects to Hong before his body was taken to the Coroner’s Services and Forensic Complex at Keele and Wilson Streets in North York.
Pegg, who said he had only recently visited Hong, said he was a police officer whose dedication to the job was “unwavering”.  She called him “brave beyond description”.
“To see something like this happen in our city with people I love and care about, there are no words for it,” said Pegg, who called the killing “an unspeakable thing.”
“Our hearts are broken.”
Interim Toronto Police Chief James Ramer officially announced Hong’s death Monday night in Mississauga.
“It is with deep sadness that I announce the passing of Toronto Police Constable Andrew Hong of Traffic Services,” he said during a press conference.
Calling Hong a “husband, father and son,” Ramer said he has pledged to the slain officer’s family that they will have the “full support of the Toronto Police Service every day going forward.”
“This is devastating news for his family and for all members of the Toronto Police Service and our entire police community.  We will lean on each other as we work to support Constable Hong’s family and each other in our grief,” he said.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said Hong’s death is “deeply saddened,” adding that it was clear he was a “beloved” colleague, something he said he saw firsthand Monday night as many officers from Traffic Services had “tears streaming down their faces”.
“(Hong) was someone who meant a lot to them,” Tory said, adding that the officers, while not perfect, “got up every morning and put on a uniform and go out into danger.”
“This is one of those things that just breaks your heart,” he said.
Tory had met Hong personally during the pandemic when he was doing some security work and called him a “gentle giant of a man”.
“Everyone who met him liked him,” she said.
The Mayor is expected to visit the Toronto Police Traffic Services Unit at 9 Hanna Avenue in Liberty Village today to meet with Hong’s grieving colleagues.
Last night, hundreds of police officers gathered outside Mississauga Square near Argentia Road and Winston Churchill Avenue where Hong was shot and killed on Monday afternoon for a march led by Traffic Services that accompanied his body to the coroner’s office.  A large police force was also assembled at this point.
Funeral arrangements for Hong are still in the works at this time.