Police in Calgary and Edmonton are looking to the public for help identifying three persons of interest in the shooting deaths of three people last year.
Cuc Lung, 34, and Quang Tran, 38, were gunned down in the Calgary community of Redstone in September 2016. The pair were sitting in a vehicle in their home’s front-attached garage when they were shot. Lung’s five-year-old son was in the back seat of the car at the time but wasn’t injured.
A few weeks later on Oct. 7, 2016, Phu Phan, 30, was shot in the Edmonton community of Rapperswill. Phan was found dead in the driveway of his home in the area of 171 Avenue and 126 Street. He was Edmonton’s 35th homicide victim of 2016.
On Thursday, Calgary police announced the two shootings are thought to be connected and both shootings were targeted attacks, but that a motive isn’t yet known.
Police in both Calgary and Edmonton are hoping to identify three persons of interest (pictured below) thought to be connected to both shootings.
Speaking during a morning news conference, Insp. Paul Wozney of the Calgary Police Service Major Crimes Section said the men could be anywhere.
“The persons of interest in the photographs that we’ve provided, I would describe them as being ‘fluid’ so they could be anywhere in Edmonton or Calgary,” he said.
“We do know that organized crime – and people that are involved in that lifestyle – they have no borders, so they move very fluidly throughout the province, throughout western Canada and throughout our country.”
Wozney said the photos were taken in the Edmonton area at around the time of Phan’s death.
“What we’re doing is we’re making a plea to the community to ask for some assistance in helping corroborate the identity of who these people are.”
“Something as silly as maybe you had a road rage incident with these people up in Edmonton or in Calgary, or maybe came across them and maybe they have a distinctive look about them,” Wozney said. “Whether it was their haircut or tattoos – perhaps they may have filed that away in the back of their head somewhere, and they’re able to now provide us with some information.”
WATCH: Insp. Paul Wozney discusses three persons of interest wanted in the shooting deaths of three people in Calgary and Edmonton back in 2016.
Wozney said they don’t know the connection between the three persons of interest.
He said all three victims are described as having connections to an “organized crime lifestyle” but investigators don’t think Phan was “known to” Lung and Tran.
Wozney said Lung’s son is doing “as well as can be expected” and is safe, adding the fact that such violence occurred in front of the young boy “had a real echo, a real ripple, through our community.”
Anyone in Calgary with information about the deaths or the persons of interest is asked to call the Calgary police non-emergency line at 403-266-1234 or the Homicide Unit Tip Line at 403-428-8877.
Tips can also be left anonymously by contacting Crime Stoppers.