Police ID men shot and killed in west Ottawa, say 3 shootings likely connected
Ottawa police believe three shootings that left two men in their 20s dead on Monday are connected.
Early Monday morning, around 7:10 a.m., a man with multiple gunshot wounds arrived at the Queensway Carleton Hospital, according to police.
He is in serious condition in hospital, police said late Tuesday morning. His name has not been released.
While officers were investigating that first shooting in the Elmhurst Park area between Alpine Avenue and Tavistock Road — not far from Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre — the body of a man was discovered nearby.
He has been identified as 26-year-old Abdulrahman Al-Shammari of Ottawa.
According to police, his body was found around 8:45 a.m. He was lying next to a van on a residential driveway on Tavistock Road near Elmhurst Street, and had been shot to death.
2nd dead body found in parked car
Later in the day, shortly after 12:30 p.m., police were called to the intersection of Aylen and Wayne avenues, between Richmond Road and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, after residents reported an abandoned car with its engine still running.
View a map of the two scenes here
When police arrived they found a dead man inside the vehicle. He had been shot and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police identified him as 27-year-old Dirie Olol of Ottawa.
Insp. John McGetrick told reporters at the crime scene that the car had been there for "quite some time."
Police said Tuesday that Olol's death is likely related to the two other Monday shootings.
No arrests have been made.
Police are asking anyone who saw anything suspicious around Elmhurst Park, or on the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway between Island Park Drive and Richmond Road between 6 and 8 a.m. Monday morning, to contact the major crime unit at 613-236-1222, extension 5493.
Victims had faced criminal charges
"A day like this is quite horrific," McGetrick said. "A terrible day for the community and a more terrible day for the families involved."
But police Chief Charles Bordeleau said there is no concern for public safety.
"We believe that these incidents were targeted," Bordeleau said at an Ottawa Police Services Board meeting Monday afternoon, adding that the victims were known to police.
Court records show Al-Shammari had been found guilty of accessory after the fact of another crime in 2011, while Olol had been charged with drug possession in May 2015 and failed to attend court that same month.
'It sounded close'
Kevin Daly, who lives in the Elmhurst Park area, said he and his wife heard "two pops" just before 7 a.m.
"We were just having our coffee. I thought it was a power line popping because it happens a lot with these power lines hitting the trees," Daly said in an interview from the scene.
"It was two pops. They were about a couple minutes apart. It sounded close. I didn't think anything of it, I actually thought it was the power lines being hit."
