With a teenage shooting victim clinging to life, a witness at a London public housing complex recalled yesterday the incident that happened metres from her door.

After hearing a "big bang" outside her Huron Street townhouse, Crystal McCombs looked out Sunday night to see a man dragging his motionless friend toward a waiting taxi.

"He was just yelling for the cabbie to move up," McCombs, 19, said of the gruesome scene shortly after 9:30 p.m.

"He (the shooting victim) wasn't moving.

"He looked dead to me. The guy was just dragging him (and) his shoe fell off."

Police began investigating after being called that night to University Hospital, where a 17-year-old was treated for a single gunshot wound.

The teen was in critical condition yesterday.

A section of the housing complex, at Huron Street and Briarhill Avenue, remained taped off yesterday as investigators combed for evidence.

Police are seeking the public's help in finding the shooter.

"Detectives are limited at this point because of the (shooting's) time of day and the lack of witnesses," Const. Amanda Pfeffer said.

McCombs said she recognized the victim, whom she identified only as "Johnny," but said he doesn't live at the Huron Street complex filled with young families.

The complex — referred to by some tenants as "H-Block" — was the scene of a stabbing in the summer, and several tenants were rattled yesterday by the latest outbreak of violence.

"Any one of us could be walking by with our kids and get shot in the crossfire," said one woman.

"The community needs to be cleaned up."

The young mother, her small living room full of boxes, said she's repeatedly written the London and Middlesex Housing Corp. about her concerns.

Fed up, she's moving next month.

"(The) fear is exaggerated a little bit, but the danger is there, the crime is here and it's not going away," she said.

Officials with the housing corporation arrived yesterday to calm fears and answer questions from concerned tenants.

Worries over violence may be overblown, property manager Donna Vogel said.

"Huron Street is a nice little neighbourhood," she said.

"Every neighbourhood has its problems."

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2006/10/31/2185661-sun.html