Man and woman killed in double homicide, Hamilton police searching for suspect

A man and woman are dead and police are searching for a suspect who's considered armed and dangerous after a "targeted" shooting in Hamilton.

Police were called to a townhouse on Towercrest Drive around midnight Saturday after a tip directing them to check in on the well-being of the people living there, according to Staff Sgt. Dave Oleniuk.

Inside officers found the bodies of an adult man and woman who had both been shot.

Oleniuk said police are not releasing the identities or ages of the victims, pending notification of next of kin, but he did say they were a man and his "female friend" who had both been living at the home at the time of the shooting.

Investigators are searching for David Thomson, 35, who they described as a white man standing about 6'1" tall with short dark hair. He may be driving a grey Dodge Ram pickup with the licence plate AX70104.

"If you see him call 911 immediately. Do not try to stop him," said Oleniuk, adding Thomson has prior convictions for "violent criminal offences" and is considered "armed and dangerous."

Investigators are still working to determine when exactly the shooting happened, but believe it took place sometime overnight between Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday, a townhouse across the road from the Jerome Neighbourhood park was ringed in police tape and a forensic van was on scene. The home next door was still heavily covered in Halloween decorations.

Mutlu Bilji lives just two doors down and said when she came home around 11 p.m. Saturday night there was no sign of police, but when she woke up Sunday she found the home surrounded by cruisers.

Bilji said an "older man" and a woman in her 20s lived there, adding her husband would often talk to him about their shared love of fixing things and tinkering.

Just three days ago she and her kids made the house their first stop during their trick-or-treating and she told the man how nice it was to get a chance to see him.

"I am so sad," she said. "I'm just so sad."

Despite knowing about the homicide for hours, Oleniuk said police made the decision not to publicly discuss the homicide publicly until Sunday afternoon in order to protect the integrity of the investigation.

"We knew there was no immediate threat to anybody else in the neighbourhood and I decided … not to release that information," he explained.

When asked about a truck that was reportedly towed from the scene with its tires slashed, he would only say the vehicle is "part of the investigation."

Oleniuk said "there is every reason to believe" Thomson is still armed and dangerous and that investigators in Hamilton have notified neighbouring police services to be on the lookout.

But, he added "no one else needs to fear anything in that neighbourhood."