TORONTO -- Peter Bowen tried to sprint for his life, but the 20-year-old couldn't outrun the hail of bullets from two different guns that chased him along the ground-floor hallway of his North York highrise and ultimately ended his life.

Moments before the gunfire erupted around 7 p.m. Sunday, the city's eighth murder victim of the year -- known to friends as "Bugz" -- was with two friends in the lobby of 345 Driftwood Ave., northeast of Jane St. and Finch Ave. W., Toronto Police said yesterday.

"There's no doubt in my mind he was targeted," Det.-Sgt. Dan Neilsen said.

One man entered the building and greeted Bowen. Then two other men suddenly appeared, each armed with a handgun, and let loose a barrage of bullets, the veteran homicide detective explained.

"I've never seen anything like this before," Neilsen said. "In the lobby, and down the entire length of the first-floor, from stairwell to stairwell, there were shell casings, bullet fragments, bullet holes and ricochet marks,"

He said the victim attempted to flee but was hit at least three times before he reached the back door and finally collapsed outside in the driveway of the building.

The two friends who were with Bowen in the lobby were also shot at, Neilsen said. But both escaped unscathed.

"They literally used (the hallway) like a shooting range with live targets and no regard for where the rounds were going," he said of the brazen gunmen. "It's just unbelievable luck that no one else was injured or killed."

Neilsen said the shots pierced steel doors leading to the stairwell, but somehow no bullets ended up in the dozens of apartments that line the hallway.

Bowen, who lived in the building with his family and is believed to have been a student, was pronounced dead soon after at hospital.

A Facebook group set up by friends had attracted nearly 100 people as of last night.

Anyone with information should call police at 416-808-7400, or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS.

CHRIS.DOUCETTE@SUNMEDIA.CA