A man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a student on University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus (UTSC) last month, police say.
Babatunde Afuwape, a 28-year-old Toronto man, is accused of fatally shooting 20-year-old Shivank Avasthi on a popular campus trail on Dec. 23, Det.-Sgt. Stacey McCabe said at a news conference Wednesday.
Around 3:30 p.m. that day, officers were called to the area of Highland Creek Trail and Old Kingston Road for unknown trouble, Toronto police said last month.
Police arrived to find Avasthi with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting was Toronto’s 41st homicide of 2025.
Avasthi was a third-year University of Toronto student from India, McCabe said.
“He was young, bright, and had his whole life ahead of him. Our thoughts remain with his family, friends and classmates,” she said. “This was a deeply tragic case.”
The university’s cheerleading and powerlifting clubs both posted tributes to Avasthi on social media in the days following the shooting, both saying he had a way of lifting others up with his positivity.
Attack may have been random, police say
Investigators are still working to determine a motive, as police believe Afuwape and Avasthi were not known to each other, McCabe said Wednesday. She said police believe the shooting may have been random.
“He was there to kill somebody, is our belief. I’m not sure how he chose Avasthi,” she said.
Afuwape had been on the campus for about an hour before the shooting, McCabe said. She said police don’t know his employment status, but they don’t believe he was a student.
Afuwape was arrested on Dec. 28 for breach of parole, which was issued for firearm offences, McCabe said. He was scheduled to appear in court earlier this week, police said in a news release Wednesday.
Caitlin Whittier, a friend of Avasthi, said she met him through the University of Toronto cheerleading team. She said he was an active member of the team, and after the cheerleading season ended, the two stayed friends. She said she spent his last birthday with him.
“He was absolutely supportive. He was such a wonderful person. He cared so much about his friends. He was so caring and just a wonderful soul,” she said.
“We would study together and he would walk me back to my car at late hours of the night to make sure I got home safe. Any problems that I had, he would give me the most wonderful advice. He would listen to everything, all of my concerns,” she added.
“He would do anything for the people he cared about and it was just the love and friendship that I valued most about him.”
The night Whittier found out it was Avasthi who was fatally shot, she wrote a letter to him about all the things she would have wanted him to hear in a final conversation. She gave the letter to his parents at his funeral.
“What I think Shivank would say to us if he was here, he would want us to live our lives to the fullest and he will be watching over us, cheering us on and he’ll be waiting for us one day when we see him again,” she said.
Whittier said in their last conversation she did tell him that he was hard working and driven and that she believed in him.
She said she has two framed photos of him in her room.
“One picture was of us at our February cheerleading competition and the other photo was me and him at the beach on his birthday and he has the most bright and wonderful smile in both of those photos.
“And that’s how I want to remember him.”
‘He would do anything for the people he cared about’
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