Two people are dead and two people are in hospital after a Thursday night shooting in Stratford.
Officers responded at about 10:45 p.m. to multiple 911 calls about gunshots being fired in the area of Bradshaw Drive and McCarthy Road West near the Stratford Rotary Complex.
When officers arrived, they found four people with gunshot wounds, Stratford police said. Two people were dead while two others were taken to London’s Victoria Hospital by Ornge air ambulance after being treated by paramedics at the scene.
One of the injured has life-threatening injuries while the other has life-altering injuries, police said.
“There is no further threat to the public” and “no suspects outstanding,” police said.
Shane Wiebe, who lives on Bradshaw Drive, said he arrived in the neighbourhood on Thursday night about five minutes after police did.
Though police were unable to confirm the names of the victims due to the ongoing investigation, Wiebe described them as “a fixture on their driveway,” adding they “had a ferocious protective side.
“They wanted to see this neighbourhood safe. They wanted to see the best interests of this neighbourhood,” he said. “They were always the ones making sure that if bus stops were blocked by snow, the city was always hearing about it. And I would describe them as kind-hearted people. . . . It certainly is absolutely tragic and shocking to think.”
The four people involved in the shooting lived in multiple houses on the same street, Wiebe said, but police were not able to confirm that.
“Me and the neighbours are already talking about getting together as a whole street to talk about the event and talk about . . . how we can know our neighbours better, ” he said. “There are so many beautiful new Canadians on the street, and this is their first impression, which is terrifying.”
An area along Bradshaw Drive will be closed for most of Friday to allow officers to investigate, police said. Officers will also be canvassing the area for video and witness information.
Anyone in the area with video surveillance or photos of the incident is asked to submit the evidence to an online link: stratfordpolice.ca.evidence.com/axon/community-request/public/st24013979
Police offered condolences to the “individuals impacted.”
Former Stratford mayor Dan Mathieson also shared his condolences in a post to the social media site, X.
“Sympathies to the victims and their families, the neighbourhood and the broader community of Stratford,” Mathieson wrote.
Several local residents posted to social media Thursday night about hearing gunshots in this area. One resident, noting five or six police cruisers at the corner of Bradshaw Street and McCarthy Road West, posted about hearing “three shotgun shots and thee handgun shots.”
Another resident posted grainy black-and-white camera footage of their backyard on Facebook that included the sounds of several gunshots in succession. Other people posted smartphone footage of officers and police cruisers in the usually quiet neighbourhood.