The boy who was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder is back home after those charges were stayed by Crown prosecutors, his lawyer said.
“It was a tough week, last week,” Jim Lutz said. “I just spoke to him this morning again and he’s happily settled back at home. And he’s very happy that he’s no longer incarcerated.”
Police had charged the 14-year-old and his brother, an 18-year-old, following a brazen daytime shooting in Calgary’s Marlborough Park neighbourhood on Nov. 13 that killed one person and injured two others.
On Tuesday, those charges were stayed in court after a video came to investigators’ attention showing other people were involved in the shooting and the brothers weren’t responsible.
CPS Chief Mark Neufeld said as soon as the investigators were able to authenticate the video, they notified the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, who filed to stay the charges.
The city’s top cop apologized after a “complex chain of events” led police to believe the evidence at the time reached the threshold of reasonable and probable grounds to lay the charges.
“These charges will have impacted these two young men and their family in very significant ways. And for that, I apologize unreservedly,” Neufeld said.
Lutz said he thought Neufeld’s public apology would “make a big difference” in the community and that the brothers are happy to be able to move forward with their lives.
“It’ll take a while for it to sink in, the fact that (my client) was facing such a significant jeopardy. And now, he’s free, so give him a couple of days,” Lutz said.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the ordeal the brothers have gone through was “awful” and thought the police apology was “absolutely appropriate.”
“I am grateful that it (the apology) was issued in short order. The investigation continues into both the crime and how these charges were laid in the first place and so we will look for updates on that,” Gondek said on Wednesday.
The brothers were on the waiting list to access Centre for Newcomers programming at the time of their arrest.
Anila Lee Yuen, president and CEO of the non-profit immigrant settlement agency, said recent events have “pushed them to the top of the list,” but the brothers still need to agree to participate.
“Whenever there’s an event like this – of course, we all know that it’s a very traumatic event that anyone would have to go through, but certainly a 14-year-old boy having to go through that. And the next steps are going to be the most important, in terms of what the ultimate outcomes are going to be,” Lee Yuen said. “Not only are those two boys going to require a lot of assistance, but their family is going to require a lot of assistance. And also any of the community members that feel impacted as well.”
Lee Yuen said the need for services for youth like the ones whose charges were stayed is especially great in the recent inflationary times.
“The more resources we can put into our youth programs across the city… all those places where youth congregate, I think is really important. And all of us as adults, if we have a couple of hours even to spare to volunteer and to participate with youth, I think would go a long way in terms of just creating a community where youth feel safe and where the community feels safe because we’re all looking after each other,” the Centre for Newcomers CEO said.
Homicide investigation continues
Neufeld said while police have a responsibility to not charge the wrong people, they also have a responsibility to hold offenders to account, offenders who, presumably, are still at large.
He said the new video footage is helping investigators refocus their ongoing efforts.
Dave Sweet, a former homicide investigator, said it isn’t uncommon for new evidence to come to light in the process of an investigation.
“Some of our most high-profile cases over the years have had those types of scenarios happen, where you may be focusing on an investigative theory in one direction and then when you realize that it’s wrong, it’s refocusing in another direction,” Sweet told Global News. “This happens as part of an investigative process.”
“I think the fact that there’s somebody still on the loose is going to be certainly something that the investigators are going to be turning their mind to.
“They continue to go out and collect those other pieces of information that they need to bring this case to a conclusion. And so, yes, there’s somebody else out there, but there’s also probably evidence that has been collected that’s going to aid them or assist them in identifying who the actual person is.”
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