Latest news with #PatrickBowman
CTV News
05-06-2025
- CTV News
Three youths charged with assault with a weapon in London
Three male youths have been charged with assault with a weapon, after four separate incidents involving the firing of pellet guns. One 16-year-old male and two 17-year-old males fired a pellet gun at multiple people and a residence. The first incident occurred on May 27 at approximately 7 p.m., when Patrick Bowman was walking at Viscount Road and Farnham Road. He noticed the rear passenger of a moving vehicle produce a pellet gun and fire, and he was struck three times. At first, Bowman said he wasn't sure if he was going die. 'I see a barrel, it doesn't look like a toy,' Bowman said. That same day at approximately 9 p.m., another person observed a parked Dodge Caravan on Edmonton Street, with an individual firing pellets through the window at a residence. At approximately 10 p.m., another pedestrian was struck by a pellet. On May 28 at approximately 11:30 a.m., a woman driving a vehicle was shot at with a pellet gun from a moving SUV in the area of Southdale Road West and Farnham Road. She saw four people in the vehicle. The three accused are scheduled for a court date on July 14.
CTV News
04-06-2025
- CTV News
‘I'm going to get blown away by someone for fun,' Police investigate spate of suspected pellet gun shootings
Patrick Bowman raises his hands to show how he tried to block his face from pellets being fired at him. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London) A quiet evening stroll through his neighbourhood in Westmount turned to terror in the blink of an eye for Londoner Patrick Bowman. 'I see a barrel, it doesn't look like a toy. You don't know if you're going to die at that moment. That's what I felt like. 'I'm going to get blown away by someone for fun,'' Bowman recounted. Last Tuesday, May 27, the London barber was walking at Viscount Street and Farnham Road when an SUV drove by, with whom he believes were three teenaged boys. He says one of them hoisted a weapon through the window and opened fire, hitting him three times. 'And it didn't hurt, it stung, 'one two three,' and I felt it and went backwards. I put my hand up because I thought he was going to raise the barrel up and fire at my face, and I didn't want to get one in the eye,' he explained. Bowman says he wasn't going to report it, until he saw a post on social media reporting a woman was also fired at with a pellet gun by young people in an SUV in the same neighbourhood. 060425 - Pellet gun A Facebook post with faces blurred. (Source: Anonymous poster) 'They got a picture of one of the kids' faces, and I said 'curly hair, skinny face.' That was him, in the passenger seat, up front. But when I got shot, he was in the back seat,' said Bowman. Another incident happened that same night, but this time in east London. Police say a Dodge Caravan was parked on Edmonton Street, and the occupants were seen firing a pellet gun at a residence. And a little later that evening, police say a fourth such incident took place involving a pedestrian shot by a pellet. A location was not reported in that incident. London Police Const. Matt Dawson says police are investigating all four suspected pellet gun shootings, and taking them seriously. 'If you're walking down the road, or you're operating a motor vehicle, and someone points what appears to be a firearm at you, regardless of whether it's a pellet gun or not, that's pretty serious, and people don't know the difference. Again, that causes great concern for us and for the community,' said Const. Dawson. 'There's the off-chance that it causes a collision when you're talking about someone shooting a projectile from one vehicle towards another,' Const. Dawson added. Western University sociology professor Kaitlynn Mendes says it's important to pay attention to whether drive-by pellet gun shootings becomes a social media trend, where teens post extreme activities on platforms like TikTok. 'You know young people often feel kind of pressure to jump in with these trends and we saw two years ago the 'devious licks' trend, where young people were going and vandalizing school bathrooms, recording it and putting it online. So, I do think that social media is encouraging a certain amount of mischief,' said Mendes. Anyone with information in relation on the suspected pellet gun shootings is asked to call the London Police Service at (519) 661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
