Canton issues shelter-in-place after woman injured in shooting

Canton police issued a shelter-in-place for residences in the area where a woman was shot Monday night as police actively search for an armed suspect.

“Police do not believe this was a random act of violence, and significant mutual aid resources are in Canton conducting a search for the suspect,” Interim Police Chief Joseph Perkins said in a statement.

Police responded to a report of a person shot at the Lamplighter Village apartment complex, near the intersection of Turnpike Street and Stagecoach Road, around 6:40 p.m., Perkins said.

First responders found a woman in her 20s with a gunshot wound. She was transported to a Boston hospital with serious injuries, Canton police said.

The woman was shot sitting in the driver’s seat of her vehicle while waiting to meet someone at the apartment complex, the preliminary investigation shows. A man, who was possibly the person they were waiting for, approached with a “dark handgun and opened fire into the vehicle,” Perkins said. A second person in the passenger seat was not injured. 

Around 8:30 p.m., police said residents of the Canton Woods Apartments and Lamplighter Village apartments and any homes and businesses from Tracywood Road south to the Stoughton town line should shelter in place. 

Police described the suspect as “Black skinned, late teens or early 20s, with a skinny build, about 5’5″ to 5’6″ tall, clean shaven wearing a black beanie hat.”

Canton police reported a significant law enforcement presence on Turnpike Street, which becomes Washington Street in Stoughton, also known as Massachusetts Route 138.

Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.