TORONTO – A 31-year-old Indo-Canadian woman who suffered a gunshot wound in the stomach Wednesday morning is recovering at home. This after a brazen home invasion in the small Ontario town of Tecumseh.
Harjit Kooner was shot at around 12:45 a.m. as she and her brother, Laddi Kooner, were finishing up a barbecue outside with his family.
Laddi Kooner said after he stepped inside to use the bathroom, one of his cousins ran in. Minutes later his cousin ran into the house yelling, reported CBC News.
“Gunmen, gunmen, gunmen everywhere,” remembers Kooner. “Gunmen everywhere. Gunmen everywhere. I was like, what? Gunmen? This is Tecumseh. What do you mean gunmen?”
Kooner went to the kitchen and grabbed the first thing he saw. Armed with a pair of knives he started to head back outside, and came face to face with a masked gunman at his door, he said.
“So as I was going outside, I opened the first door. The gunmen was trying to get into the house. Right away he shot four shots right at me…and he missed. He missed those ones and my sister was pulling me back and that’s when the bullet hit her.”
Kooner said the bullet hit his sister, Harjit, in the stomach — that’s when the shooter started running.
Kooner said he started chasing after the man, and said he saw seven masked men in total and two cars sitting in the parking lot right beside his house.
“Boom, boom, boom, boom. Fired about eight shots towards me.”
He said the gunmen jumped in the cars and sped off.
Kooner said he and his family, including two of his sister’s young children, are lucky things didn’t turn out worse.
Tecumseh OPP sent its ID, canine and emergency response unit to the scene.
“It’s a very serious offence,” said Sgt. Rick Tonial. “It’s a very serious incident. It’s disheartening to hear it’s happening here in our community. But it can happen anytime, anywhere.”
Police continue to search for suspects but say there is no risk to the public.
The OPP are reminding people in the area to keep their homes and vehicles locked at all times for their own safety.
