A scary moment for three Barrie teens in the city’s south end ended with another teen facing multiple counts of assault with a weapon.
Barrie police received a call this past Thursday (April 6), just after 8:15 p.m., about a group of males playing basketball who were shot at by a paintball gun from a passing vehicle at the rear of the Peggy Hill Team Community Centre on Mapleton Avenue.
Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon said the victims were active in getting the police notified.
“It doesn’t appear as though anybody was struck, but the incident concerned the three young men enough that they went home and told their parents what had happened,” he said.
Leon said the occupants of the vehicle were wearing ski masks and the shooting of the gun occurred through the sunroof.
As a result of the investigation, Leon said investigators identified a 17-year-old male as the alleged culprit who was firing the paintball gun.
The suspect, whose name is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has been charged with three counts of assault with a weapon.
Leon said that despite it being a paintball gun, police take incidents like this seriously.
“It is still a gun, which can shoot a projectile and seriously hurt someone," he said. "There are paintball facilities for that type of activity and people who participate are dressed accordingly so as not to be hurt.
“In this situation, an eye could have been permanently damaged and someone seriously hurt," Leon added.
