Edmonton police are investigating after a 17-year-old boy was shot outside of a 7-Eleven convenience store in north Edmonton early Saturday morning.
The incident happened around 1:30 a.m. outside of the 7-Eleven located at 127 Avenue and 97 Street in the Killarney neighbourhood.
Police said the teen victim was standing near the store with a second male when a vehicle pulled up and five people jumped out and tried to rob the pair.
After a brief altercation, the 17-year-old, who was identified as Riley Brown by his family, was shot in the lower body by one of the occupants of the vehicle and was later taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Global News spoke to Elizabeth Brown, the victim’s mother, who said the entire family is in shock after what happened.
“My ex-husband called me at 2:30 in the morning and I could tell by the tone in his voice he was in a panic and I said, ‘What? What happened?'”
“He’s like, Riley’s been shot and I’m like, ‘What, he’s been shot!?,'” Brown said.
The family rushed to the hospital and say they’re lucky that Riley is alive.
“He’s like, ‘Mom I can’t believe it, I can’t believe that this happened,’
“I just said I can’t believe it either. It’s shocking,” said Brown.
The five occupants drove away in the vehicle, police said. The other male reported no injuries.
Police said they have made no arrests but have detectives investigating.
Brown says she thinks the violence in Edmonton has reached a tipping point. This is the second time that her son has been robbed by a person with a weapon. About a year ago, he was robbed at the Northgate Centre food court by knife.
“I am absolutely furious that this is happening in our city, it needs to stop.”
“I’m not going to stop until something changes, this is just unacceptable,” Brown said.
Anyone with information is asked to call their local detachment or Crime Stoppers.