Teen wanted for murder after innocent bystander slain in Hamilton shooting
Cops say Belinda Sarkodie, 26, was slain Friday near Jackson Square while 'simply going about her day'
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A 17-year-old boy is wanted for murder and attempted murder after an innocent bystander was slain and another person was injured during a shooting Friday in downtown Hamilton.
Hamilton Police responded to a “brazen daylight shooting” at about 5:25 p.m. near the Jackson Square shopping mall at the corner of King St. E. and James St. N., where a male suspect allegedly encountered three people who appear to have been the intended targets.
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Police said the male opened fire and struck one of the intended individuals, while also striking an innocent bystander — Belinda Sarkodie, 26 — who was “simply going about her day” before being slain.
Despite life-saving efforts from officers, police said Sarkodie was pronounced dead at the scene. The other victim, a male, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said a 17-year-old is wanted for second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
Police asked that anyone with information on the case contact them or 905-546-4925.
Police previously said that Sarkodie immigrated to Canada from Ghana last year and was living and working in Hamilton. Her brother lives in Manitoba and police have notified her family in Ghana.
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A video shared to Facebook shows a distraught woman wailing near the crime scene in Hamilton.
“Belinda was just 26 years old,” a Ghanaian woman who witnessed the incident told Ghana Web. “She came to Canada for school. Today is my off-day. I was going to shop and she was also going to shop when she met her untimely death.”
It was the second time in less than three months that an innocent young woman was fatally struck by a stray bullet while waiting at a Hamilton bus stop.
Harsimrat Randhawa, a 21-year-old woman from India who was studying at Mohawk College, was shot dead April 17 on Hamilton Mountain while waiting for a bus at Upper James St. and South Bend Rd.
— With files from Spiro Papuckoski.
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