Police are charging a Stoney Creek man with first-degree murder in connection to Hamilton’s first homicide of 2020, described by detectives as a case of perpetrators having the “wrong address.”
The murder took place on Jan. 29 at a home believed to be a rooming house with seven bedrooms with nine people inside near Sanford Avenue and Cannon Street.
Detectives say the victim, David Stevens, was not the intended target after speaking with witnesses, viewing surveillance footage from the area, and going through other undisclosed evidence.
Hamilton police believe 46-year-old David Stevens was not the intended target in a fatal shooting on Harvey Street in late January.
Following the shooting, Det. Sgt. Peter Thom said Stevens, who is from the Hamilton area, had had a few “interactions” with police in the past but nothing that would suggest he would be targeted in a killing.
Thom said three men who sped away in a silver or grey Chevrolet Cruze were captured on video accelerating from the scene less 30 seconds after the murder.
During a four-month investigation, homicide investigators say they arrested two men they believe were connected to the murder, one in early March and the other in late April.
The two men from Hamilton, aged 19 and 20 years old, were interviewed by detectives following their arrests with one accused of being one of the three men who entered the Harvey Street home and the other considered a suspect in the investigation.
Meanwhile, 23-year-old Shajjad Idrish of Stoney Creek has been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Stevens.
Idrish has been in police custody in Brantford since Feb. 14 after he was accused of a separate murder and two other attempted murders of two people at the Galaxy Motel on Colborne Street in Brantford on Feb. 8.
In a release on Wednesday, police say the investigation is still active and that they are still looking for the suspect car – a silver or grey four-door Chevrolet Cruze, 2015 model or older, with no sunroof.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Det. Rich Wouters of the Hamilton police major crime unit at 905-546-4921 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or online.