With a string of major crimes hitting the Waterloo region over the past couple of weeks, Bryan Larkin held a roundtable discussion with the media on Friday morning at police headquarters to discuss the recent mayhem.
The Waterloo Regional Police chief took time to address the murder in Preston, the two shootings in Waterloo and the death of a Laurier dean who was killed when she was hit by a car.
“The last seven days in Waterloo region have been challenging,” Larkin said. “It’s obviously very concerning and alarming, the number of major incidents, violent crimes as well as significant road fatality death.
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“We understand trepidation and fear, so part of my dialogue with the media today is to address the fear, to reassure the community,” he added.
During the discussion, the chief revealed new details about some of the incidents.
The wave of headline-making crimes began in Preston on April 17 when Helen Schaller, 58, was gunned down in a parking lot of the neighbourhood’s main street.
The chief went over the case, stating that they are still searching for a red Honda Fit and a balding white man between the ages of 20 and 40.
He called it “a violent crime, a heinous crime, one that is outraging from the perspective of a chief.”
Larkin went on to say that the crime was not a targeted incident and warned that “we do believe there is a risk to public safety.”
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Less than 48 hours after Schaller was killed, a man from the Greater Toronto Area was shot in an attack at a Subway in Waterloo.
“Clearly, this one is concerning,” Larkin said. “It’s alarming to have 30 shots volleyed at a plaza.
“It’s not something we see every single day in our region and it’s not something that we should accept.”
The attack, which occurred at around 2 a.m., sent one man to hospital in serious condition and two women to hospital as well.
There were more a dozen people in the shop at the time of the incident.
The chief believes it was a targeted attack “that was linked to organized street level activity” and said police have a number of leads as part of the investigation.
A day later, more shots were fired in Waterloo and as Waterloo police were en route to investigate, a cruiser struck a couple of people, prompting an SIU investigation.
Larkin said that SIU has allowed Waterloo police to investigate the crime.
“We did locate and were able to confirm a number of shots were fired,” he said. “We did locate a number of casings in the area the next day.”
The latest major incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon, when Wilfrid Laurier University dean of students Leanne Holland Brown was hit by a car, an incident where police say charges are pending.
The chief said he had worked with the 43-year-old Baden resident on more than one occasion and passed along his condolences.
“The victim in this was somebody I knew very well, somebody that I respected extremely well and did a lot of work with,” he said. “My thoughts are with our friends at the university, Leanne’s family and all of her friends.”
READ MORE: Wilfrid Laurier University Dean of Students dies after crash in Waterloo
After going over all of the cases, he went on to say that his investigators were working diligently to deal with each.
“I will tell you that in all of these incidents that I spoke about — the Cambridge homicide and the two shootings in particular in Waterloo — we have a series of active investigative leads,” Larkin said. “Our team is working around the clock; they will leave no stone unturned. I am quite confident and quite committed to seeing these matters come to a resolution.”
He was asked if police had adequate resources to deal with the rash of major incidents in Waterloo region.
“Obviously we are pushing capacity,” he said. “Right now the investigative senior leaders have advised they are confident in the resources that they have.”
Larkin also spoke about the opioid crisis affecting not only Waterloo region, but also across Canada.
While he did not link effects of the crisis directly to every crime, he said they were wreaking havoc with resources and the staggering death toll in the region this year.
“In 2018 we went to 628 reported overdoses. In 2019 we are at 344. We had 55 fatalities in 2018, he said.
He said that Watelroo police seized 1100 g of fentanyl and 550 g of carfentanil last year and over $500,000 in assets related to drug crimes.
“Obviously, the illicit trade of drugs also propagates turf, territory violence, organized crime, gangs and our community is not immune to that so we need to have a very open honest dialogue around some of those pieces as move forward,” Larkin said.
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