A teenager in Halifax is recovering from a pellet wound to the face after being confronted by men furious about snowballs being thrown at their vehicle.
The boy had been taking advantage of the latest winter storm to blow through Halifax. The storm late Wednesday closed local businesses and dumped fresh powder, sending youths thronging to local tobogganing spots.
But at one spot in the city's north end, youths engaged in the age-old Canadian tradition of pitching snowballs at passing vehicles got a rude shock when three men jumped out of a truck and confronted them with a pellet gun. They demanded to know who was responsible.
"When nobody owned up, several of the youths were assaulted," Constable Brian Palmeter, spokesman for Halifax Regional Police, said Thursday. "Our victim, the only one we've been able to identify, was struck in the face and shot with the pellet gun."
The officer said that the victim, 16, went to hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening. Police were called to the hospital overnight and were told by the boy that neither he nor his friends were among those throwing snow at cars.
"While we certainly don't encourage nor do we condone kids throwing snowballs at cars, this would certainly be an over-escalation of a response," Constable Palmeter said. "The people in the truck stopped the truck, they got out of the truck, they confronted the kids."
A similar incident that ended without injury gained huge attention last winter. In the midst of a massive snowball fight that erupted during a December, 2009, blizzard in Washington, D.C., a Hummer driven by an off-duty police officer was pelted with snow. The man pulled his pistol and challenged people to throw more snow.
Footage that later spread through YouTube showed an irate crowd chanting: "You don't bring a gun to a snowball fight." The man's chief later said his actions were "totally inappropriate."
In Halifax, Constable Palmeter said the three men in the truck could have handled the situation without escalating it.
"If the truck was damaged, then contact police," he said. "If kids were throwing snowballs, contact us."
The suspects are described black males in their late teens. The one with the pellet gun was wearing a dark coat and baggy blue jeans and sported long dreadlocks. The model and licence-plate number of the truck, which was white, are not known.