THUNDER BAY - Police say a shooting incident which took place on Sunday night that left one man seriously injured was directly linked to the city’s drug trade.
Thunder Bay Police Service have arrested 32-year-old Terry Allen Pelto of Thunder Bay with attempted murder, unauthorized possession of a firearm and three counts of possessing a firearm and ammunition despite being on a weapons prohibition order. Pelto was arrested on Monday around 4 p.m. by Thunder Bay Police Service.
Police received a call on Sunday, May 3, of possible shots fired on Oliver Road. Shortly afterwards, police located the victim of a shooting who had driven himself to the hospital and ended up driving into a barricade. The victim is in stable condition despite suffering two gunshot wounds, Detective-Inspector John Fennell said on Tuesday, May 5.
Both victim and Pelto were known to each other and are from the city, Fennell said.
“It’s directly related to the drug trade and that type of activity,” he said. “This person knew the other person and absolutely targeted him, it was not a random event where it was a stranger on stranger type of crime.”
Fennell went on to talk about the level of violence the city’s hostile drug trade has on officers and the community.
“A lot of the violence that is occurring is directly related to the drug trade that is going on in the city,” he said, adding individuals coming from southern Ontario to sell drugs in the city continues to be problematic for police.
“Historically its something we haven’t had to deal with but…over the last year now we have been dealing with significantly,” Fennell said. “It doesn’t matter how many arrests we make, how many guns we take off the street, it just seems to come and come and it's very difficult and so we keep strategizing and coming up with ways to try and arrest.”
A firearm was not found when police arrested Pelto. As a result, the investigation remains ongoing with a search warrant being looked after with respect to the firearms.
