Calgary motorist dead after shooting outside Tim Hortons

A motorist was shot and killed by an assailant on foot shortly before noon Monday in Calgary.

The shooting happened at about 11:30 a.m. at 11th Street and 12th Avenue S.W., just behind a popular Tim Hortons coffee shop.

A witness told CBC News that a black car with dark-tinted windows was pulling out of the laneway behind Tim Hortons on 12th Avenue when a man on foot took out a gun and opened fire on the car.

The witness, who asked to be identified only as Beau, said he just happened to be driving by as the shooting began and was momentarily deafened by several gunshots.

"Oh, I thought I was shot. It could have been me. One of those bullets could have just taken me right out," said the shaken man.

"This is the OK Corral, is what I was thinking. My ears were ringing."

After the shooting,  the car rolled across the intersection and through a fence.

Police confirmed the man in the car was dead and the suspect had fled on foot.

Beau said Calgary police officers, who were on the scene very quickly, got him out of his vehicle, and pulled him behind a dumpster until they were sure it was safe.

Insp. Guy Slater of the Calgary Police Service, said it was a traumatic event to happen in the middle of the day.

"It is not only disturbing for the police to come across a scene like this, to know what had gone on, but for anyone caught up in the middle of it, that must have been quite traumatic," Slater said.

Police are not saying if the slaying was gang or drug-related.

This is the second shooting in southwest Calgary in the past two months.

In the early morning hours of July 2, two men were injured when shots were fired at a white BMW near the Westside Recreation Centre in southwest Calgary. One of those men was known to gang unit inspectors.

Slater said this latest outburst of gun violence is a concern to police.

"This continues to concern the Calgary Police Service to considerable levels. The location in which this occurred is right behind a strip mall which has a coffee shop in it and a convenience store," he said.