Homicide detectives are investigating a suspicious death after a man’s body was found on an Auburn Bay street following reports of gunfire.
Officers were called to the scene on Auburn Sound Close S.E. shortly after 9:30 a.m. and found the man dead in the street.
Neighbours said they heard what sounded like construction noise as they got ready to leave their homes for the morning.
“My dog went crazy and started barking. I thought it sounded weird for sure,” Melanie Crippin said.
“I thought they were dropping two-by-fours, and three or four of them.”
She was putting laundry away in her son’s room when she peeked outside and saw ambulances, fire trucks and police cruisers flooding her street.
She said she went to ask an officer what was going on and he told her someone had been shot.
“It’s very scary,” Crippin said, adding there’s also been recent car thefts and break-ins in her neighbourhood making her nervous.
Police are calling the man’s death suspicious. His body remained in the middle of the road on Auburn Sound Circle, covered by yellow tarp and surrounded with orange traffic cones, as yellow tape cordoned off a large area around the scene.
Police cruisers blocked the entrance to the loop at the intersecting Auburn Sound Manor, turning away many vehicles attempting to drive in.
An officer with the crime scenes unit snapped photos of the scene, and other members shone flashlights along the street looking for clues.
Officers were going door to door talking to residents about what they had seen or heard.
Tiffany Jenkins normally leaves for her young daughter’s playgroup 20 minutes early, but they were running behind this morning.
When they finally got out the door, Jenkins was stopped by police tape and officers lining the street.
When she learned about the shooting, she was shocked.
“It’s scary to think we could have been going by at that time (of the shooting),” she said.
Jenkins says she only moved into her home a year ago and has always felt that the area is safe. But this event has shaken her up.
“It’s mind blowing that this would ever happen here.”
Keith Ebert and his wife, who came from Ontario to help their daughter with her newborn triplets, were at her home when they heard several pops.
Like many other neighbours, they also mistook the sounds for construction.
“It was bang, bang, that’s all I heard. But my wife heard more than just two pops,” Ebert said.
He said his wife heard someone speaking in what sounded like a foreign language around the same time.
“It makes one a little bit nervous, that’s for sure,” he said.
He says he can’t comment much on the area as he is only visiting, but adds the neighbours have been “really wonderful” in assisting his daughter and son-in-law with their babies.
Charleen Salmon was getting ready for work when she heard two or three bangs around 9:30 a.m.
“It sounded like air nail guns,” Salmon said. “There’s lots of construction so I didn’t think much of it.”
When she came out of her home around 10 a.m. to investigate, she was surprised to see such a heavy police presence.
“They told me they will be here for awhile,” she said.
I called my parents and told them not to come home.”
She said the incident is scary and that her neighbourhood is generally very safe.
Investigators say anyone with information about the shooting should call police.
More to come …
Man found dead in Auburn Bay after shots reportedly fired
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Originally Posted by rage2
