The mayor of Amherst, N.S., is looking to reassure the public after a fatal shooting this week.
The shooting on Prince Arthur Street on Monday evening claimed the life of a 41-year-old man. The suspects fled the scene and have not been arrested yet.
Amherst Mayor Rob Small says people in the town are still processing the event.
“To hear about this is really a shock for most of us,” he said.
He says the town’s police force is committed to ensuring that people feel safe and adds that resources beyond local police are being tapped to find those responsible.
“In fact, today I’m told that we have not just our police force, but other forces and partners in policing that are helping us to sort through all the details of this incident,” he said.
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An obituary identifies the victim as Christopher Leggett, who leaves behind a son.
Police say the shooting was a “targeted” incident and there is no risk to the public.
“It is normally a quiet community, everybody knows everybody, and I think it’s important to focus on — we do have a lot of good people in this community,” said Amherst Police Force Chief Dwayne Pike on Tuesday.
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“We have a very supportive community and sometimes we have to lean on that to get us through these tough times when something as tragic as this happens.”
Pike adds crime rates typically trend upwards in the spring but he hasn’t seen anything unusual so far this year.
However, several Amherst business owners told Global News they’re feeling unsafe, including Donna Gogan, the owner of a restaurant next door to the crime scene.
“I wish I could say I’m shocked, I’m not shocked. I expected something like this to happen over the last year or so,” said Gogan.
David Mitchell, the mayor of Bridgewater, N.S. and president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities, says mayors across the province have voiced concerns about crime.
“Stats Canada says that crime is down across Canada, and then I am hearing people feeling like crime is on the increase. And I think the difference here is that crime is more personal. What we’re seeing is more thefts, more property thefts and things like that,” he said.
“We can’t just dismiss it as, ‘Well, crime is down statistically,’ because it doesn’t feel that.”
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