Monday, August 3, 2015
Ottawa’s 22nd shooting victim of the year remained in hospital in critical condition Monday as police continued to seek witnesses to the attack.
“We believe there are suspects, plural, although we are not sure how many,” acting Insp. Mark Patterson said Monday, explaining that major crimes investigators were still canvassing the area around where the shooting occurred in an effort to pin down exactly what happened.
Police were called to the parking lot of Brookfield High School in the residential area of Brookfield and Hobson roads at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday after receiving reports of a shooting a few minutes earlier. They found a 27-year-old man who had been shot once in the chest. Ottawa paramedics rushed the man to the Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital with “serious life-threatening injuries.” No name has been released.
At the scene, investigators found a grey Mazda 6 in the otherwise empty parking lot. The vehicle was seized even though police weren’t sure at the time whether it had anything to do with the shooting.
The parking lot was also cordoned off overnight while officers canvassed the area for information about the shooting and sought possible witnesses.
“We still have a bunch of witnesses to interview before we can be sure of anything,” Patterson said, including the motive for the shooting. “We’re getting different accounts from witnesses so we need to interview them again.”
This latest shooting follows a mid-July shooting near Coventry Road and Vanier Parkway in which a man in his late 20s was shot twice. He survived.
Last year, there were 49 shootings in Ottawa, prompting police to undertake an anti-gang initiative in hopes of quelling gun violence. The initiative ended at the beginning of July.
Police were asking that anyone with information about the Brookfield shooting contact the major crimes unit at 613-236-1222 ext. 5493 or Crime Stoppers at 613-233-8477 (TIPS) or toll free at 1-800-222-8477.
Source: Ottawa Citizen