An early-morning shooting in downtown Brantford ended with a young woman taken to hospital for treatment of facial injuries and police amazed the situation wasn’t even worse.
“I am shocked that we don’t have a fatality in regards to this,” Const. Natalie Laing told CTV News.
“This was a horrific random act.”
Around 2:15 a.m. Thursday, a number of people in and around the downtown called 911 after hearing multiple gunshots.
According to police, what they were hearing was an incident outside a bar on Market Street, between Chatham and Nelson streets.
Police say it began with a car pulling up, followed by three of the four people inside disembarking the vehicle.
A verbal argument allegedly ensued between them and a crowd on the sidewalk.
“One of the male suspects that had exited the vehicle then brandished a handgun and started firing toward the crowd,” said Laing.
Police estimate that the shots were fired at the crowd from a distance of about 20 to 25 feet.
One 25-year-old woman was injured, although police say it’s unclear if she was hit by a bullet or by fragments from a ricochet.
“She was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,” Laing said.
Another bullet ended up embedded in a nearby taxi, and a third in a gas meter.
The alleged shooter and other two people then got back into the car and drove away from the area. Police describe all four as black men in their late 20s.
They were last seen heading eastbound on Nelson Street in a four-door silver sedan.
John Vince, who lives nearby, didn’t see the commotion – but he did hear the shots.
“I thought they were fireworks at first,” he said.
“Then we saw everybody ducking and diving behind cars.”
Later in the morning, Vince found a hole where something had hit his front window.
He’s not sure if it was a bullet, a fragment of a bullet or something else entirely.
Police say they still want to hear from anyone who may have seen or heard anything relating to the shooting.
“We’re trying to figure out all the pieces to the puzzle,” Laing said.
