It’s believed a man out for a walk with his partner and young children was deliberately targeted during a disturbing daylight shooting caught on video in west Edmonton last weekend.
The brazen shooting happened Saturday evening in the family-oriented neighbourhood of Ormsby Place, in the Callingwood area, and a senior Edmonton Police Service investigator said he’s seeing more of these kinds of reckless acts of violence.
Video released by police shows a man pushing a stroller with a baby in it, while his partner was pushing another stroller with a toddler in it.
Police said the family was out for a walk around 6:45 p.m. when a red Nissan Rogue pulled up behind them on Ormsby Crescent.
While the SUV was still rolling to a stop, two men wearing face masks ran from the vehicle and began chasing the complainant while firing multiple shots at him.
The woman screamed as the man she was with took off down the street. She then gathered the children and fled the area on foot as well.
Police said the suspects then chased the man southeast through a green space located between Ormsby Crescent and Ormsby Road East, while both continued to fire shots at him.
- What we know — and don’t — in Ontario’s deadly Highway 401 police pursuit crash
- Canada’s most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. over Toronto homicide
- 4th youth charged with murder in killing of 16-year-old outside Halifax mall
- Trump faces jail threat as judge fines him for breaking gag order during trial
The suspects then returned to the SUV and fled the area.
More reckless shootings, more often: EPS
EPS organized crime branch Acting Insp. Sgt. Eric Stewart has been involved in drug and gang investigations for about a dozen years and said the game is changing.
“We’re seeing more of these types of reckless, careless-type shooting events. They’re happening more in broad daylight hours, in residential areas where there’s family — potential for kids to be playing,” Stewart said at a news conference Wednesday.
“There used to be a little bit of a respect level amongst these groups. But clearly by this and what we’ve seen historically and some other events, it seems to be gone out the window, which is concerning for us.”
Stewart said the crime isn’t isolated to one area of Edmonton — it’s happening across the city.
He doesn’t know what beef the men this past weekend had with each other.
“I don’t believe it’s specifically gang-related. We have a unique landscape here in Edmonton where we don’t have a lot of gangs targeting gangs.”
Stewart said police are seeing situations where individuals are involved in some sort of criminality but it isn’t the traditional gang structure.
“We have old historical conflicts that come up, not necessarily always in Edmonton.”
Police said neither the complainant nor his family were hurt.
“We’re very fortunate that none of those kids were struck,” Stewart said.
“The individuals coming out of that SUV had a total disregard for anybody in the neighbourhood and the family members with that complaint.”
Stewart said this wasn’t a random shooting.
“To be clear, the male complainant is known to police and this was a targeted offence,” he said, adding police have interviewed the suspected target of the shooting.
“We’re not getting much cooperation from that individual.”
Police didn’t say if the man lives in that area, in order to protect both his and his family’s safety.
Stewart said the investigation is at a sensitive stage and didn’t get into what may have led to the shooting, but noted it happened in broad daylight in a quiet residential area.
“What I do want to further convey is how absolutely irresponsible this act was — electing to shoot up a neighbourhood filled with families,” he said.
“We can easily be talking about life-threatening injuries or homicides here today if other children or families were out riding bikes or playing on the street or someone was outside mowing the grass, et cetera, when this event took place.”
Gun used in Callingwood area linked to another 2023 shooting
So far this year, there have been 95 shootings in Edmonton — up 25 per cent from last year. Police said as of this day in 2022, there were 76 shooting occurrences.
Stewart said ballistics has linked the firearm used in this shooting to another shooting earlier this year, but didn’t specify which one.
“That investigation is also ongoing and being investigated, but we’ve been able to link that through our firearms examination unit and our IBIS (integrated ballistic identification system) instrument, which we’ve spoke about before. So we can say the same firearms’ been used in two events.”
The IBIS helps police to link bullets and cartridges from a crime scene to specific firearms by matching markings against national and international databases of millions of bullets and cartridge cases.
EPS purchased the system in November 2020 to analyze cartridge casings and link shooting events more quickly — before, they had to ship bullets and casings off to the RCMP’s lab.
The EPS firearms investigation unit has taken over the case and released video surveillance (see video player above) and still images of the shooting (see below) in hopes someone will be able to identify the suspects and/or the red Nissan vehicle involved.
Investigators are also encouraging residents who live around the green space located between Ormsby Crescent and Ormsby Road East to check the exteriors of their homes for any potential damage caused by gunshots.
The Edmonton Police Service is also seeking any additional residential camera video footage of the incident itself.
“It’s challenging when we have somebody who is targeted and shot at but not cooperating with the police. We rely on other information and we’re hoping this can help us with that,” Stewart said of asking for the public’s help.
Anyone with information about this shooting is encouraged to contact the EPS at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone.
Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online.
Comments