Called after reported gunfire in an east-end neighbourhood, London police didn’t find what a worker there later stumbled upon — spent shell casings.

They were found five days later.

Not until staff from the area’s public housing authority came across the casings at a Huron Street complex did police discover a townhouse there had been struck by multiple bullets.

Friday, in the fallout of the gunplay, some neighbours were so rattled they wouldn’t speak by name and the head of the London and Middlesex Housing Corp. was asking why police didn’t alert his agency to the investigation when the trouble erupted last Saturday.

“We weren’t made aware of it until yesterday,” the authority’s chief executive, Josh Browne, said Friday of the shooting probe.

“We have a very good relationship with the police, so it would have been good for us to get that information in advance, so if there were safety risks we could have . . . worked a little more closely.”



Huron Street townhouse in London, Ontario where police found three gunshot holes in the exterior of the building on Friday February 24, 2017. Police think the shooting occurred last Saturday. (MORRIS LAMONT/THE LONDON FREE PRESS)

The geared-to-income complex is home mainly to families and not far from a neighbourhood elementary school.

Staff doing on-site work at the complex found the bullet casings Thursday, Browne said.

“This is really something we just stumbled upon,” he said.

Police were first called to the 1000 block of Huron Street, west of Highbury Avenue, on Saturday at 6:45 p.m. over reported gunshots.

But responding officers didn’t find any signs of gunfire or locate any witnesses, said police. Investigators returned to the scene Thursday, after the casings were found, and discovered suspected bullet holes in the outside wall of a townhouse at 1077 Huron St.

Three bullet holes in the upper-floor portion of the two-storey unit were visible Friday, each marked by a ruler-like sticker left by police.

“We don’t have any evidence that anybody was injured and we don’t have any witnesses,” said Const. Sandasha Bough, who wouldn’t reveal how many shots were fired, citing the investigation.

No suspects had been arrested.

Investigators canvassed the complex Thursday, asking residents whether they’d heard or seen anything related to the shooting.

Neighbours told The Free Press an older woman, whose grown son frequently stays with her, lives in the unit where the bullet holes were found.

Beer cans littered the front yard of the townhouse and a child’s car seat was on the walkway.

Neighbours, none of whom wanted to be identified, said they often see people coming and going from the unit.

One young mother living in the complex said she plans to move following the gunplay.

“I’ve put in an emergency transfer,” she said of her request to be moved to another public housing property.

Coun. Jesse Helmer, whose Ward 4 includes the complex, said he contacted the housing authority and city staff Friday to find out how they plan to support the townhouse residents.

“Obviously, it’s very concerning,” he said of the gunfire.

But Helmer said he isn’t alarmed that it took police five days to discover that bullets had struck a home. “Police have a tough job. If they get called out there at night and it’s dark . . . there’s a lot of buildings there,” he said.

“I think it’s actually very reasonable that they went out to look for it, they didn’t see any evidence . . . and as soon as they found evidence of it, they are proceeding with an investigation.”

Police are appealing for anyone with information to contact them 519 661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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