By Ismail Shakil
OTTAWA (Reuters) -A security guard was seriously wounded in a shooting at Canadian rapper Drake's Toronto mansion early on Tuesday, police said, without confirming whether the five-time Grammy award winner was at home during the incident.
Police said the shooting happened around 2 a.m. (0600 GMT) and officers responding to the incident found a man with a gunshot wound who was taken to a hospital. A suspected shooter was spotted and the individual fled in a vehicle.
Speaking to reporters in front of Drake's home in Toronto's lavish Bridle Path neighborhood, often dubbed "Millionaires Row," Inspector Paul Krawczyk said the investigation was at an early stage and information was very limited.
Police had not yet established a motive behind the shooting and details of the shooter or the vehicle were not yet available, Krawczyk said.
The wounded man, a security guard who was standing outside the mansion gates, was still in the hospital in serious condition, he said. Krawczyk could not confirm whether Drake was at home at the time of the incident but said police were in contact with his team, which was cooperating.
Asked if the incident was linked to an ongoing feud between Drake and American rapper Kendrick Lamar, Krawczyk said he was aware of it, but said it was too early in the investigation to assign any motive and declined to comment further.
Lamar, who has won 17 Grammy awards, escalated his musical battle with Drake over the past week by releasing a three "diss" tracks in 36 hours, according to Variety. The video of the last of the three songs, "Not Like Us," featured aerial view of Drake's Toronto mansion.
The song, which has over 23 million views on Lamar's YouTube channel, prompted some fans to add an "Owned by Kendrick" label to Drake's Toronto house on Google Maps, according to the National Post newspaper. The label has since been taken down.
Representatives for Drake and Lamar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Additional reporting by Alicia Powell; Editing by Bill Berkrot, David Gregorio and Jonathan Oatis)
