For Jennifer McKay, the loss of her children’s father has been devastating. They were just four and six years old when he died.
“Having to answer questions from your children like: ‘Why can’t God bring back daddy?’… It’s very hard,” McKay said.
On Feb. 12, 2022, Richard Heikkila was on 91st Street and 124th Avenue in Edmonton when someone drove by and shot him. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
McKay said they talked and Heikkila didn’t say much, just that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
He spent a couple weeks in hospital and was discharged.
McKay said Heikkila went back three days later because his gunshot wound became infected.
On March 18, just over a month after he’d been shot, the 44-year-old father died from that infection.
McKay went to the hospital and said goodbye to him. She Facetimed his family in Ontario so they also could have a chance to see him one last time.
“It’s really hard. I would never wish this on anyone in my entire life.”
It’s been 18 months since the shooting and McKay still has no answers.
The Edmonton Police Service said there have been no arrests and an investigation is ongoing. An autopsy was completed on Heikkila but police said the results were inconclusive and further testing is needed.
McKay doesn’t feel the investigation into Heikkila’s death and shooting is being taken seriously.
“Richard was a hard-working person, he had kids that he loved and cared for. He had addiction issues, but for it not to be taken seriously really angers me,” she said.
Former homicide detective and criminologist Dan Jones said drive-by shootings can be extremely difficult to solve.
“If you don’t know what kind of car it is, if there is no witness evidence… Especially if the person wasn’t a target of the drive-by, that makes it even harder,” Jones said.
“It’s easy to get away and often they do it in a stolen car and you’ll see the car get burnt and all the evidence with it.”
Jones said even though these investigations are difficult to solve, he believes because it is a shooting, it is being taken seriously. He said it is possible this case could be solved.
“Investigations sometimes take a lot longer than people think they do because there’s just the nature of proving a crime. You might have a suspect but you might not have enough to charge,” Jones explained.
“The sad part and the unfortunate part is the family won’t be updated on the investigation because the integrity requires those investigations to be quiet.”
Jones said he remembered a homicide investigation he was involved in 2008 and it wasn’t solved until last year.
“I remember meeting with the mom multiple times a year and not being able to tell her anything else, and not being able to give her any information because the investigation has to be very much done under the guise of not sharing, and that’s very hard for families,” he said.
“I think we need to do a better job in explaining that to people.”
Edmonton police haven’t confirmed if they believe the drive-by shooting involving Heikkila was targeted or a case of mistaken identity.
McKay said she was told further testing into his remains was supposed to be completed between six and nines months, but it has passed 11 months now.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told Global News in an email it’s not able to share information regarding cases to anyone except the next of kin, and in some cases, third parties like police.
“The circumstances of each individual case determines how many times the OCME contacts or is contacted by primary next of kin. Staff at the OCME are always available to next of kin who have questions about a loved one’s case.”
The OCME also said it does not have inconclusive as a category for when it determines the results of a physical autopsy or when it determines the medical cause and manner of death in its final death investigation reports.
Edmonton police are asking anyone with any information about the drive-by shooting involving Heikkila to contact them.
“We need help in this investigation… These people need to be off the street,” McKay said.
Even though the process has been long and agonizing, McKay still hopes she and her children will one day have some answers.
“We just want closure. We want to know what happened. We want to know how he died and why he died.”
Comments