TORONTO, CANADA – The gunman who targeted a Riverdale home over this past weekend, fatally striking a cat, may have opened the screen door before firing.
Toronto Police say a woman returned to her Logan-First Aves.-area home on Sunday afternoon literally to find bullet holes in her front door and her cat wounded.
The feline, not long afterward, ending up having to be put down.
Const. Caroline de Kloet states the gunfire happened somewhere between Saturday night and Sunday morning. There were a total of three bullet holes in the wooden front door.
However, there were absolutely no bullet holes in the screen door on the outside of the wood door, leaving the impression someone opened the screen to fire the shots.
The bullet holes appear to be just the size of a pellet gun.
De Kloet stated she couldn’t comment on the caliber of the bullets.
“A bullet was removed (from the cat) and sent to the forensic unit for further investigation,” she stated.
Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack praised the officers who passed around the hat to pay for the veterinarian bill, including the euthanization.
“Thks to 55 Div officers Yan, Smith & Rinkoff for picking up vet bill to euthanize cat injured in T.O. shooting,” he tweeted on Monday.
Area residents said having a shooting in the neighborhood is quite unusual.
“For something like that to happen here is bizarre,” Erin Outhton stated. “It’s a good place. The worst thing that goes on is a bike theft.”
A neighbor just across the street from the shooting left a note by the bullet-ridden door.
“We can’t imagine how you are feeling right now … your neighbors are thinking of you,” the note stated.
Stan, who didn’t want his last name used, agreed that such an event is out of character for the area.
“I’ve lived here 32 years and there has never been anything. I was talking to my wife and we wondered if it was something like those people who leave poison around for dogs,” Stan stated.
“Maybe this cat was messing someone’s garden.”
De Kloet stated police are working with the targeted home’s residents.
“The victim in this case is the cat,” she concluded.
