Halifax Regional Police say they took a half dozen suspicious guns off the streets last month alone, but that didn’t stop several loud bursts from ringing out the city’s north end long after the Canada Day fireworks ended Wednesday night.
Officers responded to the Tim Hortons on Lady Hammond Road at 11:45 p.m. after someone fired five to seven shots at two people who had apparently been arguing in the coffee shop’s parking lot, police said.
Witnesses told police that a man standing outside of his silver-coloured SUV and a woman standing outside of her silver-coloured car were in the midst of a verbal dispute when the shooter ran toward them from the south side of the parking lot and fired his gun.
They both hopped into their vehicles and took off, while the male suspect ran northbound across Lady Hammond Road and through neighbourhood yards, police said, adding a trained dog couldn’t track him.
Police spokesman Const. Brian Palmeter said officers confiscated a rented SUV and “there does appear to be bullet holes in the vehicle.”
He said investigators also recovered “some shell casings,” adding no one has reported being hurt. Palmeter pointed out that “these types of incidents are normally between people who are in some kind of ongoing feud.”
He couldn’t say whether this most recent case is related to a slew of recent shootings in north end Halifax, which police have put additional resources toward solving and stopping.
“Six firearms have been seized,” Palmeter said of work by the special task force, explaining that doesn’t include normal gun seizures – only weapons of particular concern to police.
“These incidents are as serious to us as they are to the public, which is why we’re putting these efforts in.”
Justice Minister Ross Landry said Thursday “whenever you have violence in the community that’s always a concern.
“But I have confidence in the Halifax Police and the RCMP,” he said.
– with notes from Paul McLeod
