Two Brantford men charged in shooting in London

Police allege three men charged this week in a shooting from nearly a year ago were armed with a sawed-off shotgun and wearing masks, according to court documents.

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The case marks the third time in one week London police have laid charges against suspects accused of carrying out crimes involving sawed-off shotguns, a weapon favored by criminals because of its availability and concealability.

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London police said Thursday they charged two men and obtained an arrest warrant for a third in a shooting on Feb. 21, 2023, at a home on Langmuir Avenue in east London, where a man with a gunshot wound was taken to hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, police said.

Dylan Scremin, 29, of Brantford, Paul St. Pierre, 46, of Hamilton, and Hayden Denton, 23, of Brantford are jointly charged with aggravated assault, armed robbery, disguise with intent and firearm offenses.

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The trio had their faces covered with masks and were armed with a sawed-off shotgun when they are alleged to have attacked and robbed a man, court documents say.

Scremin and St. Pierre already were in custody in unrelated cases. Denton is the subject of an arrest warrant, police said.

St. Pierre, who made his first appearance in a London courtroom Monday by video link from the Collins Bay Institute in Kingston, was remanded into custody until his next appearance Feb. 6.

Scremin, who appeared in a London court Wednesday by video link from the Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, was remanded to custody until his next appearance Wednesday.

Denton, who additionally is charged with possession of a firearm contrary to a probation order, remained at large Friday. Police urged the public to call 911 immediately if they saw Denton – described as six-feet tall with dirty blond hair and brown eyes – and not to approach him.

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The charges against the three men were announced on the same day police charged a 16-year-old male

in the city’s first case of gunfire this year. In that case, officers arrested a suspect and seized a sawed-off shotgun and a rifle scope from a home on Rhine Avenue in northeast London after a report of a gunshot in the area Wednesday around 1:35 am, police said. Nobody was hurt.

Just six days earlier, a man was stabbed near William and Bathurst streets and officers spotted a man running from the scene. A suspect was arrested nearby and officers seized a loaded, sawed-off shotgun and drugs, police said. A 23-year-old London man is charged with nine gun and drug offenses.

Shotguns are legal in Canada, but sawed-off shotguns – defined as ones with the barrels cut off to less than 45 centimeters (18 inches) – are considered prohibited weapons and are illegal to possess except by police and military.

London police Chief Thai Truong has singled out gun violence as a growing threat to public safety in London, where there were 27 cases of gunfire last year, up from 24 the prior year.

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