A 15-year-old boy was rushed to hospital in serious condition Thursday morning following a police-involved shooting at a Mississauga plaza.
Police say that they were initially called to a gas station at Credit Valley Town Plaza in the area of Brittania and Creditview roads after a call came in about an armed robbery in progress at around 2 a.m.
Special Investigations Unit spokesperson Jason Gennaro said that two of the three suspects involved in that robbery fled the scene in a grey vehicle while the third remained on scene and attempted to rob another establishment.
Gennaro says that the remaining suspect then attempted to get into three separate parked vehicles that had people inside them but was unable to gain entry.
At that point, police arrived on scene and had an interaction with the suspect outside a bank.
Gennaro said that one officer discharged his firearm during that interaction, wounding the suspect.
The boy suffered a single gunshot wound to the torso but was conscious and breathing when paramedics arrived at the scene.
He was rushed to hospital in serious but stable condition.
Witness evaded robbery, heard gunshots
Janet Wade-Hunt told CP24 that she was sitting in her vehicle doing some paperwork when she noticed someone approaching her passenger side window.
Wade-Hunt said she quickly hit the lock button on the driver’s side door in an attempt to secure the vehicle, but it didn’t work.
“At that point, once I was confident, I looked at the man,” she said.
“He had a gun on one hand and my door was open.”
Wade-Hunt said she immediately tried to take control of the situation and demanded the suspect step away from her vehicle.
“I really didn’t want him to take control of me,” she said. “So I told him what I wanted because it’s my car and he opened my door without my permission. So I said, ‘Sir,’ and I pointed at him. I said, ‘You need to close my door.’”
When the suspect didn’t budge, Wade-Hunt said she pointed to the nearby Pizza Pizza and told him that her boyfriend was inside and would return shortly.
The suspect then “got angry,” she said, and mumbled an expletive.
Wade-Hunt asked the suspect to leave again. She said he complied and slammed the door as he left.
Once it was clear for her to drive away, Wade-Hunt said she called 9-1-1. She said she watched as the suspect approached a grey SUV in the parking lot and pointed the gun at the window.
Wade-Hunt said she observed the suspect slam the base of the firearm against the window.
“I could actually hear the sound from my car,” she said.
At one point, Wade-Hunt said she locked eyes with the suspect from across the parking lot and he started walking toward her vehicle again.
“I do remember telling 9-1-1, ‘Listen, I might have to hit this guy with my car,’” she said.
Following the instructions of the 9-1-1 operator, Wade-Hunt said she drove out of the parking lot but decided to return a short time later after realizing police were looking for the suspect in the wrong area of the parking lot.
“When they (police) went toward the Bank of Montreal, they started pulling out the guns,” she said.
It was then that Wade-Hunt started to film the ordeal on her phone.
“I believe I saw a shot,” she said. “I saw a star or a flare and it seemed like it was coming from the Bank of Montreal.”
Wade-Hunt said she six or seven shots were fired during the exchange.
“I didn’t want him dead. I know you’re not allowed to have guns in Canada like you do in America so I just wanted them to arrest him or maybe shoot him in the leg,” she said.
“But when the officers told me that he had the gun pointed directly at them… That’s not a good thing to do.”
Sources previously told CP24 that a handgun was recovered at the scene; however, Gennaro said he could not confirm whether or not the suspect exchanged fire with the officers or whether he was even armed.
“We are currently appealing to any witnesses who may have been in the area at the time or who may have captured the incident on video,” Gennaro told reporters at the scene.
He said that a large perimeter has been set up at the scene as investigators look for evidence.
“We anticipate that it will be shut down for several more hours, probably most of the day,” he said. “The reason that the perimeter is so big is because there were several scenes and several parts to this in investigation. Peel police have a part in this as well. They have a parallel investigation going with regards to the robbery attempts.”
Gennaro said that Peel police are continuing to look for the two other suspects that fled the scene.
All that is known about the suspects at this point is that they are young males, Gennaro said.
The SIU has assigned six investigators and two forensic investigators to the case.
