A seven-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man were rushed to hospital following a shooting in Oshawa, Ont. that police have described as “disturbing.”
Durham Region Police said the young boy was inside a home shortly before 11 p.m. on Thursday when he was struck in his leg by a stray bullet that had been shot from outside the home.
Police said the man was outside of the home during the shooting and was struck by a bullet in the abdomen. Investigators say the adult shooting victim was known to police and he was targeted.
Both shooting victims suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Staff Sgt. Colin Shaw described the shooting as "disturbing."
"It's obviously concerning for us," Shaw told reporters in Oshawa on Friday morning. "We don't have a lot of shooting incidents, and something like this would be quite disturbing to the public and the police."
The young boy's neighbour told reporters at the scene that she heard the sounds of gunshots late Thursday night and came running outside.
"I heard everyone yelling and screaming, and saying ‘Call 911’," Tanya West told reporters outside of her home.
She said following the shooting she saw the young boy with his mother, and there was blood all over his leg.
"He asked, 'Are you going to come with me? Am I going to be OK?'", West said. “I said ‘You’re going to be OK buddy.’”
Jesiqua Rapley said she saw a man walk through a crowd of people that had gathered outside of the townhouse before hearing two to three gunshots.
"We heard lots of screaming…there was a toddler screaming and crying," Rapley told CTV Toronto. "People were running all over the place."
Rapley said after the shots were fired she saw a car speed away from the area.
Neighbour Judy Wolecki visited the young boy in hospital on Friday morning. She called the shooter a "coward."
"Why do you need a gun to fight and shoot people?" she asked.
Police are searching for one suspect, described as a black male who was wearing a grey sweatshirt and black jeans at the time of the shooting.
Police are canvassing the Oshawa neighbourhood and the public is being asked to check any surveillance video that they may have set up around their homes.
