Ottawa

Neighbours shocked by Friday night shooting in Findlay Creek

Ottawa police are investigating the city's tenth shooting of 2018. A man has been taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Police received multiple calls a man had been shot on Gracewood Crescent around 8 p.m. Friday

The Ottawa police guns and gangs unit is investigating a Friday night shooting on Gracewood Crescent. (Marc-Andre Cossette/CBC News)

A man in his 30s was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being shot on Gracewood Crescent near Findlay Creek and Albion Road Friday evening, according to police.

Ottawa police say the man had just gotten out of his vehicle on the residential street in the city's south end when he was fired upon. Several people called 911 shortly after 8 p.m.

The man appeared to have been shot in the leg and was taken to hospital for treatment, Duty Insp. John Medeiros said.

The guns and gangs unit is leading the investigation, Medeiros said.

Gracewood Crescent resident Vikram Metiratta has lived in the neighbourhood for eight years and says it doesn't have a reputation for being particularly violent. (Marc-André Cossette/CBC)

'We were very surprised'

 Vikram Metiratta lives nearby and said that in the eight years he'd been in the neighbourhood, things had always been relatively calm.

"We were very surprised — in this part of the neighbourhood — to hear about a shooting," Metiratta told CBC News on Saturday morning.

"I asked [the police], 'Is this a bad neighbourhood?'" Metiratta said. "And they said, 'No, this is a very safe neighbourhood.' This is probably a targeted shooting."

Gracewood Crescent resident Gabriel Obando says he's concerned about the number of shootings that Ottawa's experienced in the first 20 days of 2018. (Marc-André Cossette/CBC )

10 shootings in 20 days

Friday night's shooting was already Ottawa's tenth of 2018. Two of those shootings have been fatal.

Gabriel Obando, another Gracewood Crescent resident, said his family chose to move to Canada from Nigeria in part because of the country's reputation for safety.

"In the capital city of Ottawa, to have ten shootings within 20 days — that is not a good statistic. That's quite scary," he said.

"My advice would be that the municipal authorities ... they need to work it out. These are not good statistics at all."

Police are asking anyone with information about Friday's shooting to submit an anonymous tip by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or by using the Ottawa police app.