Following a brazen, daytime shooting near a school that injured an innocent bystander, Calgary police are asking members of the community to come forward with any information or video footage they may have.
The police chief said it was a targeted shooting involving organized crime that has “very much shaken the community.”
“Calgary still remains a safe city,” Chief Mark Neufeld said Wednesday. “But these things are happening and they’re happening in places that we wouldn’t expect, in quiet neighborhoods like this (which) afford new opportunities for… (the) community to cooperate with police and join together to prevent gang and gun violence.”
At around 1:15 p.m. on Oct. 27, police were called to the 200 block of Pinemill Way Northeast for reports that a man had been shot.
Police believe the suspects were driving a white SUV and were waiting outside a nearby residence. When their intended target left his residence, the suspects began shooting and chased the man, who took shelter in a nearby home which had innocent bystanders standing outside, police said.
One of the bystanders, a man in his 40s, was struck by a bullet and transported to hospital in stable condition.
Loralee Montens, a facility operator at nearby Clarence Samson School, told Global News his friend, a teacher, arrived at his home across the street when the bullets started flying and one struck his friend in the leg.
“While we’re grateful that the innocent bystander who was shot will recover, this incident had the potential to end much differently,” Neufeld said Wednesday. “It had the potential to end much more tragically. And this is a tangible example of how organized crime puts all of us at risk.”
The SUV was later abandoned in the 3100 block of 60 Street N.E. after police believe offenders tried to destroy evidence.
Supt. Cory Dayley said the investigation into the shooting was still “pretty fluid” given how recent the incident was, but “can’t disclose too much in regards to the pace of the investigation at this time.”
Neufeld said a collective, community decision to prevent organized crime and gun-related incidents require action from community members, where appropriate.
“If you see something suspicious, please report that to police,” the police chief said.
“Maybe somebody told you something, maybe you witnessed something, or maybe you know somebody who’s gotten caught up in this lifestyle for whom things have gotten out of control. You can talk to the police, you can (anonymously) talk to Crime Stoppers.
“This is the type of thing that can actually save a life.”
Neufeld said police are already monitoring hundreds of offenders in the city and have seized 340 illegal firearms this year. But he said citizens have a better sense of when something isn’t quite right in their neighbourhood.
“We believe that the individuals that were involved would have cased out the location ahead of time. So when I talk about the fact that there’s opportunities for the community to be involved and to alert the police to things they’re seeing, those opportunities were the case here,” he said.
The police chief said there was no indication the latest shooting was part of a larger gang war, instead calling it a “conflict” whose retaliation was likely planned in the emergency department of a hospital following a previous attack.
“As a community, we all have to get together and decide it’s not something we’re going to tolerate and together we’re going to make sure that blight and the idiots that do things like this are going to be going off our streets.”
Anyone with information about the incident, who witnessed it, or who has dashcam or CCTV footage is asked to call the CPS non-emergency line at 403-266-1234. Anonymous tips can be provided to Crime Stoppers. Specifically, police are looking for information or footage from the 200 block of Pinemill Way N.E. and the 3100 block of 60 Street N.E. between noon and 2 p.m. on Oct. 27.
— with files from Carolyn Kury de Castillo, Global News