Police officers responding to a report of gunshots heard something unexpected when they arrived – more shots.
Several residents in the Niska Road area of Guelph reported hearing the shots Wednesday morning.
In Helga Harmon’s case, it happened as she was putting out birdseed in her yard.
“I heard these shots – I would say two (or) three,” she said. “It was a bit disturbing.”
Harmon’s first thought was that somebody may have been hurt in the nearby Speed River.
As police eventually determined, nobody was injured.
The shots were coming from three men who had decided to go duck hunting around the river.
Police spoke with them. No charges were laid, although at one point shots were fired on private property.
“They just wanted to know what we were doing, why we were there,” said Bryan Dedrick, one of the hunters. “Everything checked out OK.”
Dedrick said he and his friends all had proper licences and did their best to follow the rules.
One resident reported that his roof was hit by stray pellets from the hunting party.
Like most people in the area approached by CTV News, Harmon said hunting isn’t a normal activity in the area.
“I didn’t know they were allowed to hunt back there,” she said.
Although the hunting resumed, the group said that talking to police ended up taking up most of their morning.
With reporting by Leena Latafat and Alexandra Pinto
