Neighbours ‘not shocked’ by killing at tent site

Encampment residents offered support from city; mayor calls tenting ‘unsafe and unhealthy’

The next-door neighbour to the city’s overflow homeless shelter at 210 Wolfe St. — which has a tent encampment on the property and in the adjacent Rehill parking lot — said on Friday she had long ago predicted a tragedy would occur there.

Susan Cooper was right: Peterborough Police are investigating the shooting death of a 36-year-old Peterborough woman who was killed at the tent encampment overnight Thursday.

“I’m just devastated,” Cooper said in an interview outside her home on Friday. “I knew right from the beginning when they opened this place that something tragic was going to happen.”

Police said officers responded to the scene around 2:30 a.m. Friday. By Friday afternoon, there had been no arrest.

Officers did not name the victim. The Examiner was unable to confirm the name with relatives early Friday.

Cooper said she’s heard what sounded like gunshots on several recent nights; it has spooked her dog, and left her upset.

Meanwhile, she says living next door to an encampment of tents has been unpleasant overall.

“It is getting right out of control,” Cooper said. “People defecate in the laneway. They’ve tried to steal my barbecue… I find dirty (sanitary) napkins right on my front lawn.”

Other neighbours said Friday they weren’t surprised about the shooting, either.

Mike Melnik, who lives and runs a business on Dalhousie Street, told The Examiner in a text message Friday he was saddened “but not shocked” about the death.

“When tents began appearing adjacent to the shelter, the city failed to enforce its bylaw and remove them, and now the encampment is out of control,” he wrote. “Police and city staff need to clear the area immediately.”

However on Friday Mayor Jeff Leal issued a statement saying the city will be “offering support services” to people in the encampment as police investigate.

Leal also said tenting is “unsafe and unhealthy,” and encouraged

‘‘ I knew right from the beginning when they opened this place that something tragic was going to happen.

SUSAN COOPER NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOUR

people without homes to seek help from city social services.

Meantime, city council recently approved a new plan to install modular homes on the property to replace tents, and to have social agencies set up offices in the building at 210 Wolfe St. to assist people.

Leal stated that he expects the plan will “help get people on a better trajectory in their lives and to improve the conditions for the broader neighbourhood.”

That’s not enough for Dawn Morden, who lives nearby. She said some neighbours knew there were weapons in the encampment, and had recently alerted the city.

She’d predicted a tragedy. “I knew it was only a matter of time,” she wrote in a text to The Examiner.

Suzan Trotter, another neighbour, said she worries about further tragedy.

“What’s going to be next? A police officer losing their life? A child?” she asked. “To be truthful, it will get worse. I’ve said so all along … I’m ashamed to be a Peterburian.”

Miriam Davidson of Dalhousie Street said the neighbourhood has been “diverse” for years, and cares about everyone. “Calling us NIMBYs is absolutely, utterly wrong. Because we have been a community of different kinds of people for many years,” she said.

However, a shooting death “is something different … it’s a criminal situation,” Davidson said, adding that everyone in the encampment, as well as all the housed neighbours, “need help.”

Coun. Joy Lachica went to the scene on Friday.

“I desperately care and fear for this transitional time … We need to make sure our community’s feeling safe,” she said.

Meanwhile, Peterborough— Kawartha MP Michelle Ferreri was in Ottawa Friday and tweeted about the shooting in Peterborough.

“People on the street are terrified,” she wrote. “Business owners predicted this months ago. There is rapidly declining public safety, especially for our most vulnerable. This was a safe sleepy town — what happened?”