Peel District Police say they were called to an address on Gateway Avenue near Queen Street East at 2:01 p.m. for shooting reports. They arrived and found two men suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. One was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was rushed to hospital, but was later pronounced dead. Relatives present at the scene told CP24 that one of the victims was a 40-year-old man who had six young children. Peel District Police spokesman Charles Payette told CP24 that a Father’s Day event was held at the Chandni Convention Center. “We call on anyone who has a video of the incident to contact investigators,” he said. Payette said police believe there were “many” people in the downtown area when gunshots were heard. He said the first evidence showed shootings inside the area. But the director of the Chandni Convention Center, Richard Marshall, told CP24 that the shooting took place outside as the Father’s Day event was coming to an end and he had footage from a surveillance camera to prove it. “It happened outside – I’m the manager, I was there, nothing happened inside,” he said. “As far as I know (the suspects and the victims) came from some other incident.” He said he saw the video of the shooting that took place in the parking lot of the area and the footage from the 32 cameras of the area is already from a homicide detective. He said he disagreed with the police version of what happened. “This is an aristocratic installation, we have a clean business, everything we do, we do it above the dashboard.” It was estimated that there were still 150 people inside the area when shots were heard. Police say a homicide detective and a mobile command center are at the scene. Several officers were outside to dig into the surrounding buildings and obtain surveillance footage. The conference center had previously seen violence in December 2021, when two people were seriously injured in a shooting. No suspicious information was immediately available.
