Victoria Day celebrations that quickly went sideways on Monday night led to Peel Regional Police closing Brampton’s Chinguacousy Park due to “large, unsafe gatherings and use of fireworks.”
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Everyone in the park was asked to leave as cops cleared the area and laid charges against 13 people after thousands had gathered there with some allegedly shooting fireworks at each other.
“It’s important to understand in the eyes of the Criminal Code (that) when you’re using a firework to shoot at another person it’s perceived as a weapon,” Peel police Const. Tyler Bell-Morena told reporters on Tuesday.
“So we have persons charged with possession of weapons dangerous, possession of explosives to be used in a dangerous capacity, that would be the fireworks, and including some drug offences and as well there were some replica firearms seized from individuals.”
Youth, young adults among those charged
He said the majority of people charged were between 18 and 26 years old, but a 17-year-old was also facing charges.
Bell-Morena said about 35 additional officers were deployed to the park as things quickly ramped up.
“Officers were called in on time off to affect public safety measures, so it was a rather large response, but at one time in the park it’s anticipated there were over 2,000 people gathered and many of them with fireworks being set off at one another,” he said.
“We even had instances of fires that were inadvertently set because of the fireworks hitting the ground. We had people running into traffic trying to escape the fireworks. A decision was made at one point to close Queen St. down. There was a pretty large disturbance in the area and with that also came dozens upon dozens of calls for service.”
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People ‘discharging fireworks at other people’
Bell-Morena said he didn’t believe fireworks displays were planned for Chinguacousy Park and that cops were concerned about the large use of fireworks as weapons.
“It was the intelligence of the large amount of people expected to attend, discharging fireworks at other people and that’s just what we saw,” he said.
Bell-Morena said the park has been the site of problems in the past.
“We’ve seen an escalation of events throughout the years and, again, this incident is another opportunity for us to take preventative measures for future events, Canada Day is coming up, any large festivities in the area,” he said.
“So we have seen fireworks being shot at individuals. We’ve had firearms discharged in Chinguacousy Park last summer where officers were nearly struck by gunfire. There is an escalation that we see at these events. And even (Tuesday) I can announce some of the individuals charged were found in possession of replica firearms.”
The incident came after Toronto Police announced they would be having an increased presence at Woodbine Beach Park on Sunday and Monday leading up to the fireworks display on Monday night.