Man in critical condition after Overbrook shooting

Ottawa police responded to reports of a person having been shot in the 300 block of Prince Albert Street on Wednesday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA

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At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3, all that remained behind the Ottawa Police Service‘s yellow crime scene tape were bloodied gauzes, white Nike Air sneakers and a bullet casing.

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Just hours before, OPS officers were at the 300 block of Prince Albert Street in the Overbrook neighbourhood after receiving “multiple 911 calls” reporting that a man had been shot.

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Ottawa Paramedic Service spokesperson Marc-Antoine Deschamps said the victim was located in critical condition and paramedics worked to resuscitate him en route to hospital, but he remained in life-threatening condition upon arrival there.

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Officers took another person into custody, police said, with a news release adding that investigators were “still working to determine the circumstances that led to the shooting.”

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A resident of another home just down the street from the scene of shooting said he heard a “loud pop” around 1 p.m.

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“We didn’t think anything of it initially,” Victor, who did not give his last name, told the Ottawa Citizen, adding he had been inside his house when it happened.

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“But then we came out, we saw a gentleman on the ground and we heard people screaming,” he said.

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Victor said he didn’t feel unsafe walking his dog, Taco, outside after the shooting.

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“Most of the people on the block know that, if you’re not in that sort of life, there’s a low probabilities of something like this happening to you,” he said.

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Victor said he was surprised the shooting happened on his street, adding that he and his family — who have lived in their 200-block house for 26 years — hadn’t heard of any previous shootings there.

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“You don’t feel unsafe walking at night,” he said.

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Another resident, Gregory Bonnah, said police asked to review video from a security camera overlooking his front lawn.

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“I have no idea what’s on it,” he said. “Just people walking by.”

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Bonnah, who along with his wife has lived in their Overbrook house for 35 years, said the neighbourhood had its good and its bad.

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“You get really good people, like children, and then you get people that want to cause mayhem,” he said, “And that’s unfortunate.”

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Despite being a “poor” neighbourhood, it’s not violent for the most part, he said. “I can still walk my dog anytime of day or night and not be worried.”

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For the same reasons, mother of five Sara Martin described the neighbourhood as “unpredictable.”

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“It’s not good or bad … it’s all of it together,” she said as she stood on her front lawn.

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Martin said she had spent most of her afternoon on the lawn waiting for two of her kids to come home from school. She would usually walk down the street to meet them, but police tape had cordoned off the area where the school bus normally stopped.

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Martin said living in the neighbourhood had forced her to learn to let go of worrying about her children, but on days like this, “It’s scary.”

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On one hand, Martin said, kids are very social and the area has a “’90s feel” to it.