HAMILTON SHOOTERS LINKED TO DRUG WAR

Too Much Like T.O.

Drug dealers battling for control are suspected in a weekend shooting spree
in Hamilton -- violence that seems too much like Toronto for Police Chief
Ken Robertson.

"He's concerned about what's been happening in Toronto and he doesn't want
to see it escalate here," Hamilton Police spokesman Sgt. Maggie McKittrick
said yesterday.

In a morning meeting, Robertson instructed his senior officers to act
quickly to capture those behind the weekend gunfire, McKittrick said.

"He made it very clear that there will be zero tolerance for this type of
conduct in this city," she said. "His message was that we're not going to
tolerate this.

"This is about two or three people targeting each other," she said. "We
know who all the players are.

"It will be dealt with promptly. These people will be shut down."

3 Incidents

Police said an ongoing drug battle is responsible for the three incidents
of gunfire. Although no one was hurt, the home of an innocent family was
targeted in one case.

The shooting spree erupted around 10:30 p.m. Saturday after a fight broke
out between the occupants of two cars at Sherman and Cumberland Aves. A
passenger got out of a Volkswagon Beetle and opened fire on the second car,
possibly a Pontiac.

Local hospitals were checked for anyone who had been treated for gunshot
injuries. None were found.

Shortly after midnight Sunday, a shot was fired through the front window of
a home on Grant Ave. Investigators determined the bullet was meant for a
residence nearby.

Moments after that, the same people are believed to have kicked in the door
to an apartment in a Wentworth St. S. building and fired a shotgun blast.
Again, no one was hit.