Artificial intelligence-powered weapons detectors are coming soon to London emergency rooms, an internal email to hospital staff says.
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The technology is coming to Victoria and University hospitals in response to a Dec. 14 shooting outside Victoria Hospital’s emergency room that riddled the entrance with bullets and led to an attempted murder charge against a Brampton man.
Hospital officials will visit Windsor Regional Hospital this month see the Evolv weapons detection system in use there for more than a year, London Health Sciences Centre officials told employees this week in an email obtained by The Free Press.
The system from a Massachusetts company uses sensors and artificial intelligence to distinguish weapons from common items such as phones and keys, so people can pass through the scanner without removing personal items for inspection, and alerting security if a weapon is detected.
In the email, LHSC’s provincially appointed supervisor said the technology will be at the hospitals within four to five weeks and staff will be trained on it first.
“We appreciate your support as we implement this critical safety enhancement. Our goal is to provide a safer work environment for everyone at LHSC while maintaining a welcoming and efficient hospital experience,” David Musyj wrote.
The system will be operational at University Hospital first, the email said, and a media event will be organized to showcase the technology before it goes into use.
A LHSC spokesperson declined to detail the cost of the system, saying more information would be provided at a monthly community update Feb. 19.
Musyj first revealed plans to install the system in city emergency rooms after the gunfire at the hospital two months ago.
Investigators believe a man was shot in south London about 2:30 a.m., followed by the shooter as he drove to Victoria Hospital, and fired on again, police said. The man was treated for gunshot wounds and released the same day.
Court records identify the victim as Abdulla Kaddoura, 32, who was charged the same day with failing to comply with a release order barring him from possessing drug trafficking paraphernalia, including scales, or more than one cellphone. A court imposed that condition on Kaddoura in November after he was charged with possessing oxycodone for trafficking.
Kaddoura was one of three London men charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 13, 2020, death of Sangita Sharma, 56, who was gunned down in her Brampton home.
Kaddoura was ultimately acquitted, while one Londoner was convicted of second-degree murder and the other of manslaughter.
A month after the hospital shooting, London police charged Josiah Levy-Porter with attempted murder, discharging a firearm in a reckless manner, possessing property obtained by crime, dangerous driving, failing to comply with a release order and failing to comply with an undertaking.
Levy-Porter was already in York Regional police custody on charges related to a Markham home invasion in which a man was shot and an armed bank robbery in Vaughan in the weeks after the London shootings. He remains in custody.
Levy-Porter was under several release orders from unrelated charges at the time of his arrest, York police said.