Halifax Regional Municipality councillor and deputy mayor Tony Mancini says people in his district are starting to feel a bit uneasy.
Two shootings occurred in his Dartmouth district recently — one resulting in the death of a man.
“We had a shooting last week where three people were injured and on Monday we have another shooting that led to a death,” said Mancini, who represents District 6.
“People are nervous, they’re concerned, they’re angry, they’re asking lots of questions.”
Monday’s shooting on Ruben claimed the life of 37-year-old Cortrell Thomas. On March 24, three people were injured in a shooting on nearby Ruben Court.
Mancini says he’s looking for answers from police about how they’re responding to the recent spike in gun crime. He says it’s unusual to see shootings occur in rapid succession like this in the municipality.
“It’s uneasy because it really hasn’t been part of our conversation or fabric of living here. We see it in the news, we see it in the big cities, we see it in the States,” he said.
“It’s always been here but it’s been at a certain level. And the feeling now that they’re happening back-to-back at a closer timeframe, that’s concerning.”
Chief Don MacLean with Halifax Regional Police says the recent shootings have investigators working around the clock.
“In the last little while, there seems to have been a proliferation which seems to have an impact on the community,” said MacLean.
“So, what I can tell you is clearly that it’s something our organization, me personally, our organization and investigators take very very seriously.”
“We don’t believe any of these instances are actually random. They were, in fact, specifically targeted events that occurred. That’s why our investigative teams, patrol teams, spend great efforts to get guns off the street.”
No arrests have been made in connection to any of these shootings.
— with a file from Global News’ Rebecca Lau