Paramedics rush 16-year-old Kyle Earl from the scene of a deadly shooting in Winnipeg's West End on Tuesday. (CBC)The fatal shooting of a 16-year-old Winnipeg boy this week was a planned, targeted event that may have been the violent spillover of a threatening incident a day earlier, a witness to the killing says.

As police continue to hunt for who shot and killed Kyle Earl in broad daylight on the steps of a Toronto Street home, one of the two other boys with him when he was shot has provided CBC News exclusive information about what happened.

One of those boys, 16, said the violence erupted from out of nowhere at about 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday.

'Bullets just started flying.'—Teen witness to shooting

"We were sitting on the steps and basically out of nowhere, shots," the teen said. "They had it planned … they just started shooting. We didn't see the shooters or anything.

"Bullets just started flying," the boy told CBC reporter Sheila North-Wilson.

He said a bullet flew by his head, splattering his cap with a white substance he believes was gunpowder.

"The wood started flying everywhere and we start hearing bullets hitting glass," he said.

One of three boys who were shot at says a bullet whizzed by his head and stained it with a substance he believes is gunpowder. "I just got up and started running upstairs and I looked at my hat, and that's when I knew I could have died."

All three boys managed to scramble into the home.

However, bullets hit Earl in his upper and lower body, and he collapsed on the floor of a main-floor bedroom. A 13-year-old was also shot in the leg, but was released from the hospital the next day.

The teen told North-Wilson that he tried to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Earl while dialing 911 at the same time, but his friend died right there.

Police have not commented on any possible motive for the shooting, but admit it was not a random event.

They also said there's information to show the culprits likely came near the area in a car, which they parked a short distance from the crime scene.

Victims threatened 1 day earlier

They are exploring the possibility that the killing was gang-related.

The boy said that it might have happened because two different gangs were trying to recruit Earl who was leaning more toward one faction over the other.

He also said that a day prior to the shooting, three people confronted them and brandished a gun.

"They didn't let any shots off. They just wanted to scare us I guess, and they did," the boy said.

Both he and the 13-year-old's families are sending the boys out of Winnipeg believing that they too have become targets.

With files from the CBC's Sheila North-Wilson