‘Ottawa’ 2 Men Shot at Slater and O’Connor Streets in Downtown Ottawa
Two men were shot in front of a downtown Ottawa office building early Victoria Day morning.
Police said they received a call about a shooting at the corner of Slater Street and O’Connor Street around 3:05 a.m.
Officers found four shell casings at the scene, police said, and then visited the Montfort and General hospitals to check on two men in their 20s who had suffered non-life-threatening gunshot injuries.
“It seems pretty obvious given the timeframe… that there might be some sort of a connection [between the scene and the wounded], but we need to make sure that’s the case before we say that with any certainty,” said Duty Insp. John Medeiros of the Ottawa police.
One of the two men has since been released from hospital, police said.
The guns and gangs unit is investigating and talking to witnesses, and police said no information about the suspects is available.
As of 1:30 p.m. Monday, nobody was in custody.
Police had closed Slater Street from Bank to Metcalfe streets and O’Connor Street from Albert Street to Laurier Avenue as part of the investigation, but the roads had reopened just before 9 a.m.
‘Surprising’ location
A trail of blood could still be seen early Monday afternoon leading from the front of an office building at the southeast corner of the intersection past Laurier Computers to the curb.
Early Monday afternoon police also towed a blood-spattered Jeep from the side of the road.
Laurier Computers owner Paul Ho said he’s surprised by the shooting, adding that he hasn’t seen anything like this in his 28 years of working in the area.
“I don’t know what to say because when I saw this… I’m really scared,” Ho said. “We are right in downtown Ottawa. Supposedly everything is safe.”
Medeiros said firearms offences don’t often happen in business districts like this one.
“If someone has a firearm, wherever they go, they could end up in a situation,” he said.
“This just happened to be where that incident occurred last night. It doesn’t mean anything’s changed in way of safety for this particular location.”
Medeiros said this is the city’s 26th shooting of the year.