New Year’s Eve shooting
Police said they are looking for one or more persons who ran from the scene after the shootings. At just after 5 a.m., Det. Steve Adair said they received 911 calls about a shooting and they found five persons there, all in their 20s, who had been shot.
“Upon arrival, CPS members located five victims with gunshot wounds, both inside the residence and outside,” Det. Adair told Calgary media. “They were subsequently transported to hospital, two of them in life-threatening condition.”
Global News reported that one of the critically injured persons has died. At around the same time, CBC News also reported one had died.
Two of the seven reported shot may have left the party before police and paramedics arrived as two wounded persons turned up at the hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds, making it there on their own.
CBC News reported that police said they do not know how many suspects they are looking for. Police cordoned off two blocks of the area around 36th Street S.W. and 17th Avenue S.W.
Violence in Albertan cities
This shooting comes on the heels of the worst mass murder in Edmonton’s history. On Monday a man with a long criminal history of domestic violence and drug-offenses, Phu Lam, 53, shot and killed eight persons in that city, including two children under 10. He then drove nearby to Fort Saskatchewan and shot himself dead.
Last April the worst mass murder in Calgary history occurred when a young man stabbed to death five students in the northwest section of the city at a house party near the University of Calgary. A suspect was arrested and is on trial.
There were about 50 persons at the New Year’s Eve party where the shootings took place and police are talking to as many as 15 witnesses; most of the party attendees were from Canada’s Somali community. Calgary Police Services will be updating the story later today.
