It has become a disturbing trend in this city - the shedding of innocent blood.

GTA residents have sadly become used to seeing cases where apparent gang members go after each other with guns in some sort of misguided attempt to find their own form of perverted justice. It's a terrible reality, but for many it doesn't touch their lives in any real way - except to increase an already growing perception of overall violence in the city.

But when a truly innocent victim falls to the hands of a predator, it moves everyone to realize 'that could have been me.'

The most famous case remains that of 15-year-old Jane Creba, gunned down while shopping with her family on Boxing Day 2005. Since then, police have done their best to crack down on the petty vendettas and robberies that seem to be behind so many of these incidents.

But despite their efforts - and a campaign by the mayor to ban handguns outright - there have still been many instances of this unfortunate trend in the GTA during the past year.

The latest appears to have happened early Friday, when two 25-year-olds with no known criminal ties were callously gunned down near Richmond and Niagara Sts. Cops say the young men appear to have had absolutely no connection to criminal gangs or organizations and seem to have been chosen at random.

And they aren't the only ones hurt or killed during the first six months of 2008. Here's a look back at just a few recent incidents where innocent blood has been spilled on city streets.

May 21

A man standing at the College subway station at 6am is shoved onto the tracks for no apparent reason. Fortunately, the train wasn't coming and he's able to scramble to safety in time without touching the electrified third rail. He escapes shaken but uninjured.

The man believed to have committed the senseless act is caught on camera leaving the scene. He's later identified as 42-year-old Grgo Kutlesa, a homeless man with serious mental problems. Cops allege he's committed other crimes near the TTC but has always been found not competent to stand trial. He remains at large and authorities are still looking for him.

May 20

One day earlier, a woman leaves her gym and stands at a TTC bus stop near Broadview and Danforth. To her horror, a man appears from out of nowhere and without warning, begins viciously stabbing her numerous times. Nicole MacDonald has a Good Samaritan to thank for her survival. She rushed over to help the badly wounded woman and paramedics credit her quick action with saving her life. A 47-year-old man with a history of mental issues has been charged.

May 1

A story that gripped and saddened the entire city emerges from Brampton, where a man and wife are brutally stabbed to death at a strip mall outside a hair salon. Nazifa and Rahimullah Shahghasy had come to the Red Maple Plaza to attend to some errands when a man confronted the woman and began viciously slashing her with a knife. Her husband heard her screams and came running to her rescue but found himself under attack as well. Both died from their wounds and police were forced to Taser a suspect who was turning the knife on his own throat.

The motive in this one remains unclear, but there are suggestions the accused may have allegedly been looking to steal the couple's car when he was surprised by one of its owners.

The tragedy was compounded because the duo didn't have any insurance and were in debt, leaving their 21-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter in dire financial straits.

March 30

Miraculously, no one was hurt but many were shaken after two separate incidents in the city involving bullets coming through the walls of homes. In the first case, a projectile whizzed right by a woman's head and lodged into her bathroom wall after coming through her Jane and Sheppard area home. "If you don't feel comfortable in your own house, where can you feel comfortable?" the victim asked through tears.

In another incident that same day, three bullets pierced the front window of a home in the Finch and Morningside area, but somehow missed everyone inside. Two 18-year-old suspects are facing charges in that case.

Jan. 17

In a case that shockingly followed less than a week after another one, grocery store worker Hou Chang Mao tries desperately to reach the safety of his store after he gets caught in the middle of a gun battle on Gerrard near Broadview. He doesn't make it and is caught in the crossfire.

The man who had come to the city from China to make a better life for himself leaves behind a heartbroken and inconsolable 18-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son.

Despite the offer of a reward and the release of stills caught on video surveillance of some 'persons of interest', there have been no arrests.

Jan. 13

The case that started the shedding of innocent blood and led to the mayor's renewed campaign on handguns. John O'Keefe, described by all who knew him as a good guy and a wonderful family man, was walking home from a pub in the Yonge and Bloor area in the early morning, when he somehow wound up in the middle of a dispute that had nothing to do with him.

Two men had become involved in a fight with a bouncer at a strip club and one allegedly fetched a gun, brought it back and fired it at the object of his anger. It was at that moment that O'Keefe happened by and he was struck and killed by the bullet.

Two men, including the gun's owner, are charged in the case.

No one knew it at the time, but it was to be the beginning of a series of blood soaked attacks against the innocent that continued with Friday's apparently random slaying downtown.