EDMONTON- A small memorial of flowers, teddy bears, and candles is growing outside the 108 Street Mac’s location where 41-year old Ricardo Cenabre was gunned down early Friday morning.
Pleasantview resident Hildegard Stratkotter took a moment Saturday afternoon to lay flowers at the site.
“He has family. He has friends. He came here for a better life and then he gets gunned down.”
“It’s upsetting that somebody would just go in there and kill somebody. It turns my stomach,” Stratkotter said.
The senior often bought milk at the local store and remembers the victim, an immigrant from the Philippines. “I’m quite sure I spoke to him. He has family. He has friends. He came here for a better life and then he gets gunned down.”
“It feels like somebody of your own died, passed away for no reason at all,” she added.
Police tape blocked off access to the convenience store, which remained closed, on Saturday.
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Stratkotter said the neighbourhood has seen a lot of break-ins recently and after this latest incident, she won’t be going to Mac’s at night.
Stratkotter also went on to say the community is in shock and described the three accused, a 26-year-old man, a 24-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy, as animals. “They can’t have any feeling,” she said. “Human beings do not kill each other.”
At the Mill Woods Mac’s, the police tape has been removed but a hand-written sign on the door explained the store won’t reopen until Monday. That’s the location where another Mac’s employee, 35-year-old Karanpal Bhangu was murdered.
Regular customers stopped by to pay their respects – expressing shock at the senselessness of Banghu’s death.
Lawrence Gomez always buys his cigarettes from the store and had made friends with the clerks. “I am from India and it’s really hard to hear these kinds of things happening in Canada nowadays.”
Gomez isn’t the only one who frequently spoke with staff. Brendan O’Neill was also a regular customer.
“There were two guys in there that were super cool. I go in there all the time and talk to them. It’s just brutal what happened,” he said.
O’Neill was planning to go to the Mac’s the night of the shootings, but decided it was too cold once he got outside. “It’s pretty frightening but I don’t really care about me. I care more about the guy who got shot.”
Other customers also expressed concerns about their own safety while shopping.
“I feel so uneasy now, to come into the store. I don’t know if I’ll feel safe again. Will I come here again? I don’t know,” said Sophie La.
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