Grieving city residents gather at makeshift memorial on Yonge St.

At a quiet memorial at Yonge St. and Finch Ave., members of the community ventured out to seek solace and peace as night fell on the day a van tore down Yonge and killed ten.

Naureen Islam and her husband live right up the street, but they waited until dark to venture out. “I didn’t want to believe it,” she said.

The couple watched as people laid flowers down, lit candles and signed their condolences with a handful of markers. “Maybe it was an accident,” she remembers thinking.

But the news continued to play at her workplace, changing her mind. Police have said the attack appears to have been deliberate, though no information on a possible motive has been released.

The community at Yonge and Finch had always felt very safe to Islam, she told the Star. She still sees it that way.