Police have released a surveillance photo of a vehicle wanted in connection with a fatal shooting in northwest Edmonton on Saturday.
READ MORE: 31-year-old man in critical condition after shooting in northwest Edmonton
Peter Penac, 31, was shot while sitting in his vehicle near 130 Street and 129 Avenue at around 9:50 p.m.
Investigators believe the suspect vehicle is a red, two-door Ford Escort between the years 1998 and 2003. The photo was captured as the vehicle left the area right after the shooting, police said.
Penac was taken to hospital but succumbed to his injuries Monday afternoon. An autopsy confirmed he died as a result of a gunshot wound.
His death is Edmonton’s 31st homicide of the year.
John Fitzgerald had just returned to his house on 130 Street when he heard gunfire on Saturday night.
“I shut the trunk and all of a sudden, I just heard something popping off,” he said.
“I swear there was seven [gunshots]. They were all like, bang! Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. They were all right after the other.”
The noise stunned Fitzgerald.
“I dropped my bags and I bee-lined it to the bush in front of the house. I got freaked out because it was right close to me, right? I didn’t know what was really going on. I didn’t know if it was shooting at me,” he said.
“I heard the wheels peel out – that’s when I was pretty much lunging for the bush.”
He then ran into his house and laid low – he’s had trouble sleeping since.
“I was awake, sleep, awake, sleep, awake, sleep – you would too if something like that happened.”
Fitzgerald said he had never seen the white vehicle or the suspect vehicle before. He is now considering moving for his own safety.
One neighbour, who does not want to be identified for safety reasons and lives beside the crime scene, said he was the first one there after the shooting.
He said a vehicle, which he has never seen before in the neighbourhood, took off at high speed. He then said the victim, who he said he has also never seen before, was slumped over the steering wheel with bullet wounds to his head and neck.
Neil Werbicki has lived in the neighbourhood for five years. He was inside his house playing a computer game when he heard what he initially thought were fireworks.
“I heard five gunshots – pop, pop, pop,” he said.
Werbicki said the Athlone neighbourhood is normally quiet but he’s concerned for his safety now.
“It was like 50 feet from my yard. I’m a little worried now that I live really close to where it happened,” he said.
–with files from Jennifer Ivanov
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