KITCHENER — Faarah DePriest made a point of walking around her Avalon Place neighbourhood after a shooting there Saturday left many residents shaken.
“I am going to go for a walk and reclaim my ’hood,” said DePriest as she headed out late Monday morning with a water bottle and earbuds.
It was the first time out of her house since a shooting after 4 p.m. Saturday. The shooting happened near 30 Avalon Pl. at the east end of the street.
It was a few blocks from DePriest’s place, but police told everyone to stay inside while they hunted for the shooters. The all-clear was given about 7 p.m.
“It’s really shocking to hear about what happened over there,” said DePriest. “It was very disturbing for a lot of people in the neighbourhood, quite a few of them have not left home since then, including myself.”
Avalon Place is at the end of Stirling Avenue South. It parallels the expressway, with dead-ends east and west, so there is no through traffic.
At the east end of the street, hiding among the trees and tall grass, police found a young man seriously wounded by a gunshot. He was taken to hospital, and officers with semi-automatic rifles stopped vehicles coming onto Avalon Place.
So far this year, gunshots have wounded five people in Kitchener in 12 different shootings. But this is the first time the people along Avalon Place experienced anything like this.
It was scary for a while Saturday, said DePriest. She first heard a lot of sirens nearby, then her neighbours called with news about the shooting. DePriest looked outside and saw lots of police.
“This whole street was closed,” said DePriest, motioning up and down Avalon.
Some residents returned from Saturday outings only to find access to the street blocked by police. Some had to wait two or three hours before they were allowed past, she added.
“I am just glad I was home,” said DePriest.
She’s lived there for two years, about the same as William Volterman, who’s lived in a second-floor apartment at 30 Avalon Pl. He also likes the neighbourhood.
“I feel quite safe going out, lately all the time, running at night,” he said. “So, I am surprised, but it is what it is.”
He was not home when the shooting happened late Saturday afternoon, but heard about it from a friend. He was watching the news later and recognized where one of the suspect vehicles was parked — right beside his apartment building.
“The Mercedes apparently came right into here, and he was parked right by our garbage can,” he said. “Which is funny because I was: ‘That’s my garbage can.’ ”
In the gutter across the street is a metre-long stretch of yellow police tape. It is shaded by the trees that grow along the south side of Avalon Place, screening the expressway’s sound barrier. There is nothing on that side for the entire length of Avalon.
“It’s quiet,” said Volterman.
But it was anything but on Saturday afternoon.
The passenger in a newer, four-door grey Mercedes fired a handgun into a grey, four-door Honda Civic. Both vehicles continued speeding south on the expressway and were spotted at the scene of the Avalon Place shooting and nearby streets a few minutes later.
Security cameras photographed the Mercedes as it parked next to garbage bins behind the apartment building. That’s the image police made public as they appealed for information.
Dr. Neil Arya is a Kitchener physician and supporter of Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns. The national organization wants a complete ban on handguns in Canada and hopes the issue does not get lost in the federal election.
“It does belong as an issue of concern for Canadians,” said Arya, well known for his family medicine practice and research among refugee communities in the region.
In addition to a national handgun ban, the doctors want increased investments in social-educational support programs for young people and their families.
“Issues related to gender-based violence, to race, to all the margins of society, so it is not just a one-step-will-cure everything,” said Arya.
Legislation that banned several semi-automatic rifles, including the type used in the 1989 massacre of 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique, did not get passed into law before the federal election was called, said Arya. It also would have allowed municipalities to issue local bans on handgun ownership.
“It was far from perfect, but it was something,” said Arya.
Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic called for upstream investments.
“Investments that prevent people from getting into a life of crime,” said Vrbanovic. “And secondly, looking for resources to deal with guns and gangs in particular and organized crime.”
Avalon Place is in Kitchener’s Ward 9 and is represented by Coun. Margaret Johnston, who also supports the call for a national ban on handguns.
“This is Kitchener, this is Canada, and we should not have to worry about gun violence here,” said Johnston. “I do hope more attention gets paid to that.”
Some residents of her ward were told to stay inside while police looked for the shooters, and if that isn’t a wake-up call, she doesn’t know what is. She supports a ban on handguns.
“People just want to live their lives and be safe,” said Johnston. “They should not have to worry about it.”
Gunshots on Avalon Place echo on campaign trail - TheRecord.com
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