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The police watchdog has assigned 10 investigators to the case. One Ottawa police officer is designated the subject of the investigation, while two other officers are listed as witnesses. The SIU has not released the names of the officers involved.

SIU investigators scoured area businesses for surveillance footage, and have made a public plea for any eyewitnesses to come forward with information.

Several people told the Citizen they heard a shot, then saw Phillips collapse on the street clutching his abdomen, while his friends yelled for police and paramedics to “Hurry up!”

Lee Demarbre was settling up at at a pub directly across from the Murray Street entrance to the parking garage, when he saw the victim in obvious trauma and rushed outside to help. As dozens of police descended on the scene, Demarbre and others were ordered back inside. By that time, Demarbre told the Citizen, the bar had filled with the smell of gunsmoke from the crime scene across the street.

“It was so surreal, it was all you could smell,” said another witness, Sophie, who did not want her surname published.

“I’ve worked in the Market for nine years, and sure there are stabbings, some sketchy crackheads, but it was never shootings like this with bullets flying. I really used to feel safe, or as safe as you can.”

Photo by Facebook / -

Ottawa Police Association president Matt Skof said the police union is offering support to the involved officer, but would give no information about him.

Skof said that “policing is a dangerous profession” and Ottawa officers are increasingly aware of that reality in the confines of the ByWard Market, where police staffing levels have been an issue given the influx of patrons in the area, especially after bars close.

The area along Dalhousie Street between Murray and Clarence remained a crime scene for much of the day Saturday, and shopkeepers and restaurateurs who arrived to find their workplace behind a maze of police tape were told to go home.

The parking garage at 141 Clarence Street was finally released as a crime scene Sunday, and those who had vehicles stranded inside were told to retrieve them.

Vincent Stoop, co-owner of The French Baker, said his delivery truck was inside the garage at the time of the shootings. He heard the shots and stepped outside to see a group of six to eight people running away, while others near the parking garage yelled for help.

ByWard Market shops and restaurants got back to business Sunday, though many were left unnerved by the gunplay.