Hamilton police release video of shooting that injured innocent man
Investigators looking to identify suspects, but also hoping to speak to witnesses captured on video
Hamilton police are asking for the public’s help identifying two suspects wanted in connection with a daytime shooting that sent an innocent bystander to hospital Monday.
Around 11:15 a.m. on Monday, as many as four gunshots were fired behind a row of mixed-use apartments at the corner of King Street East and East Avenue North, one of them striking a man in his 50s. He was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries and released a few hours later.
Police said the victim wasn’t the intended target.
Investigators believe the shooting involved a pair of armed, yet-to-beidentified men.
On Wednesday, police released a short video taken at the time of the shooting obtained from one of the apartments at King Street and East Avenue in hopes of getting information about people at the shooting scene.
The nearly 40-second, audio-less clip shows a grey four-door BMW with heavily tinted windows parked in an alleyway that connects East and Victoria avenues.
Seen on the video are a man in a red hoodie and a woman in black pants and a black vest — described by police as witnesses they’d like to speak to. Another person captured on the video — a man police are describing as a possible suspect — is the driver of the BMW. He can be seen hopping out of the vehicle into the alley, gun in hand, and crouching down beside the vehicle looking toward Victoria.
After a few seconds, the woman is seen holding the door open for the driver before running around to the passenger side and hopping in the car. The driver gets in and slowly pulls away, doing a three-point turn, stopping briefly to seemingly speak to another man wearing a grey camouflage hoodie. Police are also looking to speak to him as a potential witness.
The car was last seen travelling east on King William Street.
Not captured in the hectic video were the innocent victim and the other suspect, described as a white male wearing white shorts and a white-hooded sweatshirt, who was about 12 metres away in the same alley. Investigators believe he was targeting the BMW driver, a white man donning black pants, a blackhooded sweatshirt and white sneakers.
“The issue we’re having is we’re still combing the area for video and making inquiries because we’re trying to get quality (surveillance) to track the shooter,” Det. Sgt. Steve Bereziuk told The Spectator, noting there’s no evidence the BMW driver, despite being seen holding a gun, actually fired any shots.
The video released Wednesday, while not representative of the entire incident, helped confirm what police suspected — that there were many people around who witnessed the shooting.
“There are people who potentially can help but are choosing not to, and I can’t force them,” Bereziuk said, later adding: “You can see there’s a number of people that are in the immediate area when this happens … Clearly there are people approaching the driver talking to him.”
It’s unclear what relationship, if any, existed between the shooter and the driver of the BMW.
Bereziuk said police have since recovered the BMW in downtown Hamilton. He said the car wasn’t stolen and its owner, who wasn’t involved in the shooting, is co-operating in the investigation. Police are asking residents in the area to review their surveillance or dashcams for any suspicious activity between 10:45 and 11:30 a.m. on Monday.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contract Det. Matthew Dugdale of the shooting response team at 905-546-4883 or shootingresponseteam@hamiltonpolice.ca.