Police inspect the scene of a shooting in downtown Ottawa on Wednesday, January 8, 2020.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
January 08, 2020 - 8:39 AM
Ottawa police say one person was killed and three seriously injured in a shooting in downtown Ottawa Wednesday morning.
Acting Insp. Francois D’Aoust said at the scene that police believe the attack was targeted and there was no "active shooter" in the city, contrary to an immediate warning from the Parliamentary Protective Service, which guards nearby Parliament Hill.
But the police have nobody in custody nor even a description of the person they're looking for, according to a statement released late in the morning. It said investigators were satisfied there was no national-security element to the incident.
Officers were called to a building on Gilmour Street in Ottawa's Centretown neighbourhood at about 7:30 Wednesday morning amid reports of multiple gunshots.
The Ottawa Paramedic Service reported that one person was pronounced dead at the scene, and three others were taken to hospital in serious condition with gunshot wounds.
Mark Ignatiev lives nearby and said the home where the shooting took place is an Airbnb with three units across two floors. Ignatiev said the shooting took place in the first-floor unit.
He saw two people being taken out of the home on stretchers. One appeared to have a leg wound and the other a wound on his arm, he said. One of the men told police he was 20 years old, Ignatiev said.
He also said he watched police retrieve what looked like a gun from a neighbouring yard.
Ignatiev said the neighbourhood is colourful, and ambulances are common. The area, just west of busy Bank Street, is a mix of downtown single-family homes, duplexes and rowhouses and is sprinkled with taller apartments.
“This is a neighbourhood that has a lot of things happening," he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 8, 2020.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2020