Two men shot dead at Brampton Father's Day event

Two men are dead after shots were fired in Brampton early Sunday morning.

Peel Regional Police say they were called to an address on Gateway Boulevard, near Queen Street East at 2:01 a.m. for reports of shots fired.

They arrived to find two men suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

One was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was rushed to hospital but later pronounced dead.

Relatives who attended the scene told CP24 one of the victims was a man in his 40s who had six small children.

Peel Regional Police spokesperson Charles Payette told CP24 there was a Father’s Day event occurring at the address, which is home to Chandni Convention Centre.

“We are appealing to anyone who had video footage of the incident to contact investigators,” he said.

Payette said officers believe there were “many” people in the vicinity of the centre when shots rang out.

He said initial evidence suggests shots were fired inside the venue.

But Chandni Convention Centre’s manager, Richard Marshall, told CP24 the shooting occurred outside the venue as the Father’s Day event was winding down, and he has surveillance camera footage to prove it.

“This happened outside – I am the manager, I was there, nothing happened inside,” he said. “As far as I know (the suspects and victims) came from some other event.”

He said he witnessed the video of the shooting occurring in the venue’s parking lot, and footage from all 32 cameras at the venue is already with homicide detectives.

He said he took issue with the police version of what transpired.

“This is a classy facility, we run a clean business, everything that we do, we do above board.”

He estimated there were 150 people still inside the venue when gunshots rang out.

Police say homicide detectives and a mobile command centre are at the scene.

A number of officers were out canvassing the surrounding buildings and securing surveillance camera footage.

The convention centre previously saw violence in Dec. 2021 when two people were seriously hurt in a shooting.

No suspect information was immediately available.