It was a Scorpio birthday bash, a celebration of life for half a dozen men born under the sign of the scorpion.

A party to mark another year of survival, when so many of their friends had died in gang wars or reckless activity.

And then the shots rang out.

About 3:30 a.m. Sunday, one man was shot in the head and four other people, including two women, were wounded by gunfire inside the Atlanta Party Hall on Ellesmere Rd. in Scarborough.

That's when everyone ran for the doors, hoping to get their cars from the parking lot before police arrived and sealed everything off.

"Everybody grabbed what they could and ran through the door," said a man celebrating his 33rd birthday at the hall, just east of Midland Ave. "Everybody tried to get away before the cops came."

He told the Star he was admiring the cake with his picture on top, had just been sprayed with champagne and was feeling the burn in his eyes when gunshots rang out.

"Everybody was having fun," he explained, asking that his name not be used for fear of reprisals. "Once a year, you live to see your age. I'm happy to live to see 33.

"Then I heard a pop, pop, pop, pop. The crowd opened up and everybody ran.

"I thought, oh man, there's my picture on the cake, the shrimp and all that stuff..."

He turned to see an acquaintance, a guy he knew as Shortman, on the floor. The victim was also known to friends in the Malvern community of northeast Scarborough as Ras P.

His girlfriend was kneeling over him.

"She screamed 'No!' and I felt her pain, I really did," said the birthday boy, who said his cousin died in a shooting last year.

"A lot of blood was pouring and he was trying to hang on. I told her to talk with him, that maybe it would help."

Then he grabbed his birthday cake and ran out the door.

"Nobody wants to stay," he said. "People don't want to get involved. If you say something, you have to go to court, miss work and people call you a rat."

He said he didn't know how a gun was smuggled into the hall or what provoked the shooting.

"They searched everybody coming in, patted everybody down, so I don't know what happened," he said. "These guys are too hyped. They all want to be the man, whatever."

Police arrived and paramedics worked to stem the flow of blood from the victim's head wound. He's clinging to life in hospital.

Another man and woman were also taken to hospital and are undergoing treatment. A man and a woman drove to hospital for repairs to minor wounds and have been released.

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Police forensic officers were at the scene Sunday, probing for clues to the shootings inside the hall and on the grass and parking lots outside.

"It's all so bad, man," said birthday boy, who came to Toronto from Jamaica in 1992. "I've made it to 33, but all these kids are dying at age 16, 17, before they even have a life. Girls are losing their baby fathers.

"This was supposed to be fun. I don't know what went wrong."