Two men killed in shooting at Gloucester Centre
Posted Oct 27, 2011 01:58:31 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A large blue tarp now covers the entrance to the Caribbean Exposure Tanning Salon at the Gloucester Centre Mall after two men, including a convicted drug dealer, were shot and killed there Wednesday night.
The shooting happened around 8:30 p.m. Shops were open at the time of the incident and witnesses describe hearing three or four gun shots.
“I heard huge bangs, I think it was three or four,” says Andrea Brown, the director of a hairstyling school two doors down from the tanning salon. “I went back outside and went over there and I saw two men laying on the ground bleeding.”
Ottawa Police have confirmed the victims as 35-year-old Graham Thomas, one of the salon’s co-owners, and 31-year-old Jason Chapman.
Brown says she knew Thomas well because he worked so close to her school.
“He was really friendly, he would just say hi, how are you, you know like neighbours,” she says. “His wife is just a beautiful women, and she would come in and visit with the family and the babies.”
The 35-year-old Thomas was known to police. In 2000 he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for drug and weapon charges.
The Ottawa Sun reports one of the victims was shot in the mouth and the other in the head.
Nikolai found out about the shooting in a text from his sister.
“I didn’t believe it,” he told 1310News. “I thought it was just a rumour, because there’s a lot of rumours going on, but we came here just to take out money from my bank, CIBC, and we just saw all these ‘do not cross signs–Police’ every where.”
Joseph and his friends also got a text message about the shootings. He told 1310News they thought it was a joke.
“This has never happened before in my neighbourhood,” he said. “We live in a pretty nice neighbourhood… and I’d never think that would happen.”
Police blocked off access to the Gloucester Centre via Blair and Ogilvie while they investigated.
The suspect or suspects are still at large.
