Plan to fight gun crime, gang violence unveiled in part of Mississauga that’s seen its share
Published February 10, 2023 at 10:53 am
Ottawa will unveil a new plan to fight gun crime and gang violence at an announcement this afternoon (Feb. 10) in an area of Mississauga inundated with gun-related violence in 2022.
Marco Mendicino, Canada’s minister of public safety, will be joined by Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and Mississauga and Brampton MPs at Churchill Meadows Community Centre and Mattamy Sports Park in the city’s west end.
The federal government says Mendicino’s 1:15 p.m. announcement will be aimed at preventing gun crime and gang violence in Mississauga and Brampton.
Mississauga saw 15 murders within its borders in 2022, more than in all of Peel in 2021. In Mississauga and Brampton combined, Peel Regional Police investigated or are investigating 29 homicides that took place last year.
In 2021 across Peel, there were 14 murders and in 2020 there were 18 slayings in the two cities combined.
In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions on public gatherings taking hold, there were 31 murders in both cities combined.
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Peel police are still hunting the killer of Mississauga gas station attendant Pawanpreet Kaur, who was gunned down at close range on Dec. 3 as she worked at the Petro-Canada on the northeast corner of Britannia and Creditview Rds.
The slaying of Kaur, 21, of Brampton, was the latest incident in a wave of gun-related violence that swept the northwest part of Mississauga in 2022.
That deadly shooting was the most recent in a rash of similar violent incidents that have shaken west Mississauga neighbourhoods.
On Nov. 2, a man was shot to death near Meadowvale Community Centre in the city’s north end in what, at the time, was Peel’s 26th homicide of the year.
The victim was found on a pathway south of the community centre, which is located just east of Meadowvale Town Centre shopping mall.
On two occasions last year, Peel police set aside Saturdays to go door to door in Meadowvale-area neighbourhoods–and Erin Mills as well–in search of information related to various shootings, some of them fatal.
The en masse police efforts also sought to offer safety tips to area residents and assure them everything possible was being done to solve the violent crimes.
The latest door-to-door police effort took place in late August of 2022, when investigators were seeking information on several shootings.
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