Firearm violence has been a growing problem in Edmonton for years and this past weekend was no exception, when residents living near Commonwealth Stadium awoke to the sound of gunshots overnight.
On Sunday, June 9, 2024, around 4:40 a.m., police responded to an assault at a home near 109th Avenue and 93rd Street, where a 911 call came in that a 33-year-old man had assaulted another man at the home.
Police arrived to a suspect coming out of the house carrying a weapon. Shortly afterwards, the man was shot in a confrontation with Edmonton police and suffered life-threatening injuries.
He was treated and taken to hospital, where he was stabilized. Police said a gunshot was found to have hit a neighbouring home, but no one in the house was injured.
Incidents involving armed civilians are now more common than ever, according to Staff Sgt. Eric Stewart with the EPS guns and gangs section. He has spoken about the issue at length many times in recent years.
“Our front-line patrol members are faced with more and more firearms being on our street, showing up in traffic stops, showing up in stolen vehicles. We’re seeing it more in our investigations here in organized crime branch. So, there are more firearms on our street,” he said in an interview with Global News on Tuesday.
Sunday’s incident was the fifth shooting involving an Edmonton Police Service officer so far in 2024.
Global News reached out to ASIRT to talk about the incidents but the government agency said it was unable to give an interview or provide any information, adding questions about use of force should be directed to Edmonton police. Conversely, EPS said questions about police shootings need to go through ASIRT.
University of Alberta criminologist Temitope Oriola said that category is up in our province per capita.
“Alberta leads the way nationally with respect to shootings of civilians by the police. This has been the case for at least a couple of years,” he said.
Each police shooting involves different circumstances but Oriola said perceptions are important and the numbers concern him.
“It creates a problem for that relationship of trust that ought to exist between police services and the communities that they serve.”
That said, there’s some room for optimism. The gun calls Edmonton police are called to, while still higher than they once were, are starting to come down.
In May, there were 10 reported shootings, which is down 50 per cent from May of 2023 when there were 20.
Of the 10 reported shootings, police said five are believed to be targeted and eight resulted in injuries. In four of the 10 shootings, there was potential for innocent bystanders to be harmed. There was one death.
In 2024, there’s been 56 shootings in total — down 27 per cent compared to the same time last year, when the city was at 78.
“We’re happy to see the numbers are trending down. Of course, we’re comparing to last year’s numbers — last year we had a spike in our shooting numbers. The highest we’ve seen in many years,” Stewart said.
Last year, Oriola told Global News there was no one single factor driving crime in Edmonton, but noted it seems to be a mix of socio-economic factors and the growing pains of being a big city.
Stewart said while 2023 was an anomaly, the city has consistently seen 150 or more shootings annually for the past three or so years — something he also acknowledged comes with being a growing, major city.
“We got to expect these type of things are going to occur but from us, from the police side, is how do we pivot? How do we transition? How do we refocus our resources on some of these flare ups because gun violence is a problem,” he said, adding it isn’t just an issue for the criminals shooting at each other and the officers who respond to the violence.
“It affects also the public — some of these brazen-type events happening in daylight hours and public settings.”
The weapon of choice when it comes to violence changed about about eight years ago in Canada, Oriola noted.
“Firearms replaced knives and other sharp objects as the weapon of choice for homicides as far back as 2016, according to Statistics Canada. And that is significant,” Oriola said, noting while other violent crimes have increased, shootings nationwide have.
“This is a national phenomenon. It’s not restricted to our province or city and clearly, a source of huge concern.”
Every year is different, Stewart noted: be it turf wars, gangs going after each other or random violence.
In response, EPS boosted resources in the organized crime branch: a second gang suppression unit was launched last fall, and a second firearms investigation unit came together in early 2024. The drugs and gang team also received more resources, he said.
“What we’re looking at is a multi-faceted approach on targeting some of these groups. If we see individuals or groups involved in these shooting events, we’re trying to focus our efforts on those with our new, bolster resources — but also looking at utilizing other investigative areas in the city. Also, our frontline members are assisting in that as well.
“So it’s a lot of efforts by everybody to tackle it.”
The Edmonton Police Service has also seized fewer firearms this year. After months of increases last year, the EPS is pleased to see a change in direction.
“Really in October (2023), until now, we’ve seen a steady decrease. You know, month to month. We’ve had a couple flare ups here and there, which we’re going to have,” Stewart said.
Police seized 70 firearms in May, and 332 overall in 2024. This time last year, 521 firearms were seized in the same time period.
“Even though the seizure numbers are down, the risk is still high out there to our front-line membership in our officers,” Stewart said.