Shooting investigations stymied by victims’ silence
Posted Apr 15, 2010 05:28:07 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A man in his twenties is recovering from a gunshot wound to the foot after metro’s 11th shooting in the last month.
Police say the 22-year-old showed up at the Dartmouth General Hospital seeking treatment last night, but he won’t say anything about when he was shot, where or by whom.
It happened less than 24 hours after a 35-year-old man was shot in the hip in a Queen Street home.
Two men fled on foot after the shooting, but so far the only person arrested is the victim.
“Based on the amount of drugs that we have seized from the scene, that leads us to believe that this is not random, that this person is involved in criminal activity,” said police spokesperson Theresa Rath.
Rath says the victim is not cooperating with investigators, to the extent that he has refused to provide a description of his attackers. She says it’s become a trend in the recent shootings and investigators are getting frustrated.
“This has really been challenging for us,” she said. “In most cases, the victims are not willing to cooperate. They’re not willing to give us any suspect information, despite probably having it. And that gives us very little to go on, so we have to pursue other investigative avenues to try and piece all the pieces of the puzzle together.”
No charges have been laid in any of the shootings, and Rath says police are as concerned as residents about the spree of gunplay. She says investigators are asking anyone with any information about the shootings to come forward.
