Police are asking residents in a midtown neighbourhood to check their backyards for possible evidence following a deadly shooting in a Dufferin Street parking lot on Friday night.
Hamilton resident Leonard Pinnock, 33, was waiting in a vehicle parked outside a strip mall near Dufferin Street and Bowie Avenue at around 9:30 p.m. when he was shot multiple times by an unknown assailant.
He was treated by paramedics on scene but was pronounced dead a short time later.
“We have witness accounts that some males were seen fleeing and they were going into the rear yards. We would like people in the immediate area to check their properties,” Det. Sgt. Joyce Schertzer told reporters on Saturday. “If there is any discarded items, anything that doesn’t belong to them, call the police.”
Schertzer said that investigators are particularly interested in properties in an area bounded by Caledonia Road to the west, Dufferin Street to the east, Eglinton Avenue to the south and Castlefield Avenue to the north.
She said that residents should be on the lookout for keys, cell phones and anything else that could have fallen from the pocket of a fleeing suspect.
“It is a very liberal area but we don’t know how long or how far the suspects may have fled,” she said.
‘Random attack’
Investigators believe that Pinnock drove to the strip mall parking lot with a friend and was waiting in his vehicle for that friend to return when he was shot.
Schertzer said that witness accounts indicate that there was more than one suspect but she did not say how many.
A motive remains unknown.
“We don’t know the reason for it but it appears to be a random attack,” Schertzer said of the shooting. “He was in his vehicle at the time. He was waiting for a friend. That’s all we know for now.”
Schertzer said that police have already spoken to a number of witnesses and are reviewing surveillance camera footage from the area for possible clues.
Meanwhile, a post-mortem examination is currently being conducted on the victim.
