HAMILTON — A man carrying a handgun with a high-capacity magazine was arrested at a Hamilton festival this weekend, police said Sunday, and officers are looking for suspects who later used a baseball bat to allegedly attack a man in a nearby parking lot.
Police said those two cases at and near the Winona Peach Festival on Saturday night came before two other shootings at a bar and a club in what police characterized as overnight violence in the city.
"We have to be joined in the fact that we cannot be comfortable with what happened over the last 24 hours," Insp. Jim Callender told a news conference Sunday.
Police say a "disturbance" broke out between two men at the festival and bystanders told officers one of them was armed. Callender said police used pepper spray and batons to disperse some in the crowd who were "attempting to impede or swarm in" on the officers trying to arrest the armed man.
Officers then arrested and charged a 23-year-old man, who was allegedly carrying a handgun, high-capacity magazine and ammunition.
"The actions of these officers that night at the Winona Peach Festival, they stopped what could have been a tragedy," Callender said.
About an hour later, at 10:30 p.m., police said officers were called to a parking lot near the festival where a 53-year-old man was allegedly being attacked by four males with a baseball bat who fled the scene.
Hamilton police had previously said they were increasing their presence at the festival and several other fairs over the coming months. The move came after what police had described as a "concerning uptick" in robberies and swarming incidents carried out by young people at several community festivals last summer.
Later Saturday and into early Sunday morning, police responded to two separate shootings outside of a bar and a club. Investigators continue to look for suspects in both shootings, Callender said.
Officers responded to the first shooting outside a bar around 11:45 p.m. The two injured men, a 20-year-old and a 28-year-old, were unco-operative and investigators had few details about what happened as of Sunday, Callender said.
Officers then responded around 6 a.m. to a shooting outside a club. Two men and a woman, all in their 20s, were sent to hospital with serious injuries.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 25, 2024.
The Canadian Press