Police say they believe a shooter didn’t mean any harm and for now they are not laying charges after six homes in Beaumont, Alta., were hit when gunshots rang out at around 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
It happened in the area of 48 Avenue and 49 Avenue, in the Forest Heights neighbourhood. Police said the shooter isn’t believed to have been in the immediate area of where the houses were hit.
After conducting a search in Leduc County, RCMP seized two firearms.
The news that police don’t believe the homes were targeted comes as little comfort for some area residents who say their sense of safety has been shattered.
Julee Enman said she heard a loud bang upstairs in her house.
“It sounded like a toy had fallen down, or a picture had fallen off the wall,” she said. “It definitely didn’t sound like a bullet coming through the house.”
Her three daughters share a bedroom and they all slept through the noise.
“Had he been just a little bit closer, it would have definitely hit one of my kids.
“It’s hard to feel safe now when your home feels kind of violated.”
Several houses down, Tristyn Lindbeck’s house was hit with a bullet.
“Actually it’s pretty scary, because if I had woken up and cleaned the house like I had planned, then I would have been in that room putting books in that china cabinet, in the shelves, right when it happened — eye level.”
Next door, Taylor Koester had a bullet enter through his garage door, missing vehicles but hitting the adjacent wall and inches away from his gas line. A second bullet hit the second storey of the house.
“What we were told by some of the police officers is the guns were fired quite a ways away, and even from that distance, they must have been shooting from an upwards angle, all the bullet holes are in a downwards angle,” Koester said.
“You can be locked in your house, feel safe in your house and nobody is going to get in, but when it comes to guns and bullets, that’s something — you can’t keep that out.”
RCMP said in a news release that an investigation is ongoing.
“While we understand the concern this caused, we believe that this incident was not meant to cause any community harm,” said Cpl. Josef McCoombs with the Beaumont RCMP detachment.
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“This is a reminder to all gun owners to practise firearms safety and be diligent about where and how guns are used.”