A 36-year-old has been charged afterKingston, Ont., police say a vehicle unintentionally hit a tent, injuring multiple people, in the parking lot of a hub that provides vulnerable residents with shelter, food and addiction and mental health services.
In a news release Thursday, police said two people were in a vehicle that struck a tent on the grounds of Kingston's Integrated Care Hub at a low rate of speed around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, hitting two people inside who were in isolation due to COVID-19.
"This was not a targeted attack on the Integrated Care Hub or the occupants of the grounds surrounding the Integrated Care Hub," police said in the statement.
Police say a crowd then formed around the vehicle and tried to confront the driver, at which point the driver is alleged to have driven "in a dangerous manner" through the crowd, hitting two other people.
Police say the driver then drove directly to their headquarters – less than five minutes away – where they were arrested on charges of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, criminal negligence causing bodily harm and leaving the scene of an accident causing bodily harm.
Three individuals were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Kingston police are asking anyone who witnessed the incident or may have additional information to contact them.
Gilles Charette, executive director of Trellis HIV and Community Care, one of the hub's partners, said it's not yet known if the individual who was apprehended was known to the community of staff and clients or why the vehicle was on site. He noted that typically the only vehicles that would be in the parking lot around that time would belong to staff.
"Grateful the impact wasn't worse than that, but certainly a horrifying and traumatic experience," Charette said.
Charette said staff who were working at the time of the incident were "shocked and shaken up," but determined to continue to offer services.
"This is another indication of how community partners and various levels of government need to be collaborating to come up with better alternatives for individuals who are unhoused and dealing with COVID infection," he said.
"Having people with COVID who are unhoused isolating in tents, we can do better than that."
Some of the agencies that offer services at the Integrated Care Hub issued a statement on behalf of the hub's partners Wednesday night, saying they are "shocked and horrified" at the news.
"The ICH group of partners is working closely with people who are unhoused and in need of support at this time," the statement by the executive directors of Trellis HIV and Community Care and KFL&A Addiction and Mental Health said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 25, 2022.
Tyler Griffin, The Canadian Press
