Two people have been killed in a shooting at a convention center in Canada’s capital Ottawa, local police said. Six people were also injured. The victims were attending a wedding party near the airport, and for unknown reasons were fired upon in the parking lot around 10:20 p.m. local time. The dead men were residents of Toronto, aged 26 and 29. The injured included Americans.
The victims have an Arab-Canadian background, but according to a police spokesperson “there is no reason to believe that it is a hate crime”, an attack against a specific ethnic or cultural group. The police are still in the dark about the perpetrator or perpetrators and their motivation, says police spokesperson Amy Bonds, who calls on witnesses to report. No arrests have been made yet, and no description has been released. “This violence is tragic and unacceptable,” Bonds said at a news conference. “It’s shocking to our entire community.”
Murders are relatively rare in the Canadian capital, which has a population of nearly one million. Ten people have been killed by violence so far this year, according to police figures.
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