Manhunt underway for fake deliveryman who shot woman with crossbow

Canadian authorities have released surveillance footage of a suspect who shot a woman with a crossbow on her front porch while posing as a delivery person.

The video, released Monday, showed a masked man approaching the 44-year-old woman's home near Toronto with a large cardboard box in his hand and a hidden crossbow. He rang the doorbell, chatted with the woman for a few moments and fired an arrow into her chest, leaving her with life-threatening injuries.

Officers with the Peel Regional Police are investigating the November 2018 attack as an attempted murder and asked for the public's help with identifying the suspect, who ran and fled the scene in a vehicle parked nearby. He is still on the run.

"The victim suffered massive trauma that was both life-threatening and life-altering," Peel Regional Police Superintendent Heather Ramore said at a news conference Monday. "It is clear that this attack was meant to end the victim's life."

Ramore said the suspect may have been hired to carry out the attack.

"Comments that were made to the victim by the suspect indicate that the victim was targeted and that the suspect may have carried out the attack at the request of another individual," Ramore said. "This was not a random act."

Investigators declined to offer details about the victim, citing the ongoing investigation, but said she did not know her assailant.

Peel Regional Police Detective Sgt. Jim Kettles said the woman spent several months in the hospital and will be "in a recovery phase for the rest of her life."

"The injuries that she sustained were absolutely devastating. It involved damage to a lot of her internal organs," Kettles said. "She'll be still undergoing medical treatment for her injuries. Her life will never be the same."

The department said it released the video in the hopes that someone may recognize the suspect.