WHITBY, Ont. – A 19-year-old man was critically wounded and four others were seriously injured in a shooting at an apartment building in Whitby, Thursday.
Durham region police said shots rang out around 12:30 p.m. Thursday inside 101 White Oaks Ct.
The 19-year-old man was critically wounded and airlifted to a Toronto hospital trauma centre. The four other men, all between 17 and 19 years of age, were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police are looking for three or four male suspects, but there is no further description.
Investigators will be looking into any surveillance video of the apartment complex.
“Essentially the building itself is the scene,” said Durham police Sgt. Nancy Van Rooy.
“We have a number of leads we are following up on hoping to be able to further the investigation in a very short time span,” she said.
A teenager described the scene.
“I heard gunshots. Just like big noises. A lot of bangs,” the 16-year-old said.
A resident at a nearby apartment building said the shooting should not reflect the area.
“The majority of the people that live here are decent people and they just want to live their lives and do what they got to do,” she said.
Police told 680News four males entered the building and rode the elevator up to the third floor.
As soon as the elevator doors opened they were shot at by a gunman or gunmen likely lying in wait in the hallway.
The four victims then managed to close elevator doors and ride up to another floor, where they stumbled out and yelled for help.
Police said it’s lucky all four were not killed and very lucky that no innocent bystanders were riding in the elevator with the victims, because they too would likely be injured or dead.
Police have been getting lots of co-operation and information from residents in the building.
Residents tell me they heard several gunshots and then people screaming for help.
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I have lived here for 18 months and feel very safe. People state that there are ‘crack heads’ and ‘drug dealers’ here. Maybe there are – given the population. However, I have not seen one in my building.
At this moment, I would be more interested in finding out if anything has happened on this case. Not a peep since the incident.
I have lived here for two years and have never had a problem. There are four twenty story buildings with eight residences on each floor in two buildings….160 residences per building plus over 200 in the two wider buildings. So in total there is close to 800 residences here. A police on the scene said that the crime rate is no greater here than anywhere else in Whitby, considering the population density. I am tired to hear people bash White Oaks. Why didn’t anyone say anything about the police standoff in a residence on hopkins two months ago, or the shooting last year in north whitby, why is all the focus on white oaks?
As a Whitby resident, when I first heard that there had been a shooting, my first reaction was to say “I wonder which building on White Oaks it occurred in?”
Sadly, it is no surprise that is where it happened.
Sadly I said the same thing. One of my coworkers said “4 shot in Whitby” and I piped up and said – “Guarantied it’s White Oaks”.
As he kept reading he was astonished I knew that.
Sad but true.