Kitchener shootings, emergency room wait times, driveway surprise: Top stories of the week

'It has to stop': Kitchener shootings prompt message from police chief

 After two early morning shootings in Kitchener, Waterloo Regional Police Service Chief Bryan Larkin has issued a message condemning the crimes. Police have responded to an increasing amount to gun violence over the past several months, said Larkin.

“We saw two years in the pandemic where we did see a decline in shootings. But post pandemic, once again we’re reaching pre-2020 levels,” Larkin said in an interview with CTV News.

There have now been 10 shootings in Waterloo Region since the beginning of 2022. Last year there was a total of 16. Larkin said we’ll likely surpass that number by the end of this year.

"We’re seeing this in other jurisdictions," he continued. "We believe that this is very much related to the drug trade, to organized crime, a culture of intimidation, a culture of bullying and the propensity to use a firearm."

Larkin said police believe a pair of early morning shootings in Kitchener on Thursday June 16 are “likely connected” and investigators are currently working to establish that.

On Friday, Waterloo regional police released photos of people they’re looking to identify in connection to the pair of shootings.

Here are the local hospitals with the longest emergency room wait times

The average Ontario emergency room patient waited an hour and 54 minutes to see a doctor in April of this year, tying a record set earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic. In Waterloo region, people waited even longer.

According to Health Quality Ontario, wait times been climbing steadily each month since January 2022 when the provincial average fell to 1.5 hours. In April, the most recent month reported, it hit 1.9 hours.

Locally, emergency room patients at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener waited an average of two hours in April. At Grand River Hospital, the average wait was 2.6 hours. At Guelph General it was 2.3 hours.

Data from Cambridge Memorial Hospital was not included in Health Quality Ontario’s list, but administrators at the hospital said the average emergency room wait in April was 2.9 hours.

Cambridge, Ont. man says he was assaulted by group of men after being attacked by woman sleeping on front step

A Cambridge man says he was assaulted by a group of men after being attacked by a woman sleeping on his front step. The incident, which unfolded on Kerr Street in the Galt area of Cambridge around noon on Saturday June 11, was captured on surveillance video. It’s also under investigation by police.

The footage, taken by Lloyd Leroux’s home security cameras, shows the Cambridge resident walking his dog, Roscoe, when he stops to talk to a woman who appears to be asleep on his front step.

“I asked her ‘are you okay’ a couple times,’” Leroux told CTV News. “I didn’t get an answer and that’s when she just jumped up at me. That’s when it all started.”

Lloyd Leroux stand with his dog Roscoe. (Jeff Pickel/CTV News)

Cambridge, Ont. homeowner says driveway paved without permission

A Cambridge woman said she arrived home Saturday, and to her surprise, a crew was paving her driveway. It was done, she told CTV News, without her consent.

"Our driveway was a gravel driveway, country and rustic," said Tammie Corrigan. "Not the prettiest, but it was ours."

She explained that a man knocked on her door Friday night and offered a discounted rate to pave her driveway.

"We talked about the reason why we did not want to have it done. He talked about the reasons why we should have it done.

"At the end of the conversation [he said]: 'I'll call you next week when we're ready to do this.' And my words were: 'We'll call you if we decide to do this."

Tammie Corrigan on her newly paved driveway in Cambridge, Ont. (Carmen Wong/CTV Kitchener)

First case of monkeypox confirmed in Guelph, Ont.

Public health officials have identified the first local case of moneypox in Guelph, Ont. The case was confirmed on Thursday in a man between the ages 20 and 30, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) said in a news release Friday.

Public health is completing follow-up treatment and contacting anyone who might be at risk from this case including those who may require vaccination, WDGPH said.

Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum, associate medical officer of health for WDGPH told CTV News monkeypox is "something to be aware of," but it's not a reason for alarm or panic. 

"We knew monkeypox was cropping up in different parts of our province and we knew it would only be a matter of time before we saw cases locally," Dr. Tenenbaum said. "Monkeypox is not going to be like COVID-19, it is different kind of disease, a different kind of infection. It doesn’t spread as easily as COVID-19 does. It really is about that prolonged close contact with others who are infectious who are showing symptoms at the time of contact."

This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. (Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP)