

Chris Fox, CP24.com





A 15-year-old boy was rushed to hospital in serious condition after a police-involved shooting at a plaza in Mississauga early Thursday morning.

Police say that they were initially called to a gas station at Credit Valley Town Plaza in the area of Brittania and Creditview roads for a report of an armed robbery in progress at around 2 a.m.

Special Investigations Unit spokesperson Jason Gennaro says that two of the three suspects in that robbery fled the scene in a grey vehicle while the third remained on scene and attempted to rob another establishment.

Gennaro says that suspect then attempted to get into three separate parked vehicles that had people inside them but was unable to gain entry.

At that point, police arrived on scene and had an interaction with the suspect outside a bank.

Gennaro said that one officer discharged his firearm during that interaction, wounding the suspect.

According to paramedics, the boy sustained a single gunshot wound to the torso and was conscious and breathing at the scene. He was rushed to hospital in serious but stable condition, where he remains.

“We are currently appealing to any witnesses who may have been in the area at the time or who may have captured the incident on video,” Gennaro told reporters at the scene.

Woman ordered suspect away from vehicle

Gennaro said he can’t say whether the suspect intended to steal any vehicles in the parking lot prior to the arrival of police and can only confirm that he made attempts to enter three vehicles. .

One woman, who had an encounter with the suspect, told CP24 that she was parked outside the plaza listening to the radio and doing some paperwork when he came up and opened her passenger door while holding a gun in one hand.

The woman said that the suspect didn’t say anything at first and appeared to be “processing things in slow motion,” so she decided to order him to close the door. After her requests went unheeded, she said that she pointed to a nearby Pizza Pizza and made up a story about her boyfriend being inside. The suspect eventually uttered an expletive, slammed the door and walked away after being ordered out of the vehicle a second time, the woman said.

“I couldn’t wait for him to make the first move even though he had a gun. I didn’t want to be a victim,” Janet Wade-Hunt told CP24. “I didn’t have a gun so I realized I had to use my mouth as a weapon and demand what I wanted him to do.”

After the suspect left her vehicle, Wade-Hunt said she called 9-1-1. She said that she drove away from the immediate area but stopped at another end of the plaza, where she then observed the suspect tapping the handle of his gun against the windshield of a grey SUV.

She said that she eventually sped away from the scene after the suspect made eye contact with her but later returned to the area to “keep an eye on him” and inform police of his exact location.

“I did remember telling 9-1-1 ‘Listen I might have to hit this guy with my car.’ I told them straight up,” she said.

Wade-Hunt said she did witness the shooting but had a hard time figuring out the exact sequence of events.

She said that she heard as many as six or seven shots and believes some of them could have been fired by the suspect.

“One of the officers told me that he was pointing the gun directly at them,” she said.

Sources previously told CP24 that a handgun was recovered at the scene; however Gennaro said he could not confirm whether or not the suspect exchanged fire with the officers or whether he was even armed.

He said that a large perimeter has been set up at the scene as investigators look for evidence.

“We anticipate that it will be shut down for several more hours, probably most of the day,” he said. “The reason that the perimeter is so big is because there were several scenes and several parts to this in investigation. Peel police have a part in this as well. They have a parallel investigation going with regards to the robbery attempts.”

Gennaro said that Peel police are continuing to look for the two other suspects that fled the scene.

All that is known about those suspects at this point is that they are young males, Gennaro said.

The SIU has assigned six investigators and two forensic investigators to the case.