Monday evening’s fatal shooting of 58-year-old Terrance Patrick Izzard is the latest incident of gun violence in Halifax — an issue community groups, police and government alike are trying to get a handle on.
The medical examiner ruled Izzard’s death a homicide Tuesday afternoon, making it the municipality’s 11th confirmed homicide this year.
“We’re still a pretty safe community to walk around in and to live our lives in, but we have work to do and that work continues,” Mayor Mike Savage said Tuesday.
Mel Lucas, the program director for Ceasefire Halifax, which works to stop violence before it erupts, says there could be a number of reasons behind gun violence.
“Everybody wonders the same thing – are they all related? Some people talk to me about gangs. I don’t believe there are any gangs involved, we don’t really have a whole lot of gangs around the Halifax region,” said Lucas.
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Halifax Mayor Mike Savage says the city is working with community programs like Ceasefire and the gun amnesty program but need to double up their efforts to fight gun violence.
“There’s two things: one is how are we solving the crimes that happened, how are we dealing with that and I think the police have a good handle on that and there’s the longer term stuff,” said Savage. “We have systemic issues that continue and need to be addressed.”
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Officials believe some of the shootings are the result of beefs or disputes between people.
“You might have disrespected me six months ago, or a year ago, or maybe you went out with a previous girlfriend or boyfriend or some such and I’m upset with you,” said Lucus.
“It’s not just the drug sub-culture,” said Chief Jean-Michel Blais, Halifax Regional Police. “It’s also issues between individuals and this is what we need to get to the heart of and determine why are individuals so quick to resort to such violence.”
“We have to look very, very closely at the causes behind the crimes, the causes the crimes that are related to that,” he added.
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The Nova Scotia Department of Justice says they’re open to all ideas that could help curb violence.
“We’re looking to get a complete inventory of what we’re doing and what we can do, what can we learn from other jurisdictions and what can we do better,” said Minister Diana Whalen.
Police say part of the problem – and solution – to stopping violent crimes is for people to speak up.
“Because people don’t want to talk, we have this code of silence that’s out there that people feel that can act with all impunity,” said Chief Blais. “We want people to know that we are here to be able to help.”
Groups like Ceasefire say it’s not just up to the government to help stop gun-violence,.
“The government has to step up but guess what, not just does the government have to step up, you have the communities that have to step up, you have the schools that have to step up,” said Lucas. “There are a whole lot of pieces to the puzzle.”
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