Two teenage boys are dead after an overnight shooting in Hamilton, Ontario, a killing that police are now working to unravel amid signs it may have grown out of an earlier confrontation. Investigators say the violence unfolded in the early hours of the morning and left two young lives cut short.
Police identified the victims as 18-year-old Abdul Malik Shibley and 16-year-old Afaf Benafif. Both were from Hamilton, and their deaths have shaken the community where the shooting took place.
According to police, the shooting may have been retaliation for an earlier disturbance involving bear spray at a residence in Hamilton's east end. That earlier incident appears to be a central thread as investigators try to reconstruct what led to the gunfire.
Investigators believe at least six individuals attended the area of 191 Candlewood Drive, where an exchange of gunfire occurred. The presence of multiple people at the scene points to a confrontation rather than a random attack, according to the account police have laid out.
Officers were called to Candlewood Drive in Stony Creek at around 2:25 a.m., where they found two people suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were rushed to hospital, but they later died from their injuries, turning the call into a double homicide investigation.
Police believe the two victims had travelled to the area where the shooting happened, and they have connected the deadly encounter to the earlier incident involving a group and bear spray. Officers also towed one vehicle from the scene, saying they believe at least one more of the individuals from the group may have arrived in it.
So far, police have not arrested any suspects in the case. Investigators are appealing to any witnesses or anyone with security camera footage from the area to come forward and contact them as they continue to piece together the events that left two teenagers dead.