Ontario’s police watchdog says a 25-year-old woman has been injured in a “police-involved” shooting Friday afternoon in Westboro after fleeing a traffic stop.
In a social media post on Friday afternoon, the Ottawa Police Service said the shooting happened around 1:30 p.m.
Ottawa paramedics told CBC a woman was shot and taken to hospital in critical condition.
In a news release Friday evening, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said an officer conducted a traffic stop near Churchill and Avondale avenues.
According to the SIU’s preliminary information, the woman got out of the vehicle and ran away, and police chased after her.
“At some point, the officer discharged his firearm and the woman was struck,” reads the news release.
The SIU investigates incidents involving police in Ontario where there’s been death, serious injury or sexual assault, or if shots have been fired.
Rodrigo Demetrio, who lives near the scene of the shooting, said he and his wife heard a sound “like three gunshots, but we weren’t expecting that could be a real gunshot.”
Several nearby residents including Demetrio told CBC News they witnessed a swarm of police officers and vehicles at the scene.
The area where the shooting took place was closed to traffic, but police said Saturday morning that it has since reopened.
