Calgary police worried by spike in gun violence

The number of guns on Calgary's streets, and the number of people who are willing to use them has police in the city worried.

Most of the violence is gang-related, Supt. Ken Marchant said Thursday, but his greatest concern is that an innocent bystander is going to get hurt.

'Alberta is rich, Calgary is rich; why can't we hire more police officers?' —Criminologist Mahfooz Kanwar

"That's our biggest fear and, certainly, that should be the community's biggest concern. That is why we have spared no resource. We put every bit of our resources into these investigations," he said.

Marchant said Calgary police are making gun-related arrests almost daily.

"With the increase in guns on our streets, we're seeing more out-and-out brazen, basically, executions on our streets," he said.

This week two men have been shot and killed in Calgary.

On Monday Efrem Mehari Kuflom, 30, of Calgary, was driving his car in an alley near a Tim Hortons on 12th Avenue at 11th Street S.W. when a man on foot pulled out a gun and shot him.

Police described his shooting as drug and gang-related.

Wednesday a young man was shot on a quiet street in a middle-class neighbourhood. Neighbours saw his body lying on the lawn of a home in the 8400 block of Saddleridge Drive, where he was living with roommates.

Police said that homicide is likely gang-related, too. They have no suspects in either case.

The gang violence has the attention of Mahfooz Kanwar, a criminologist and professor of sociology at Mount Royal College in Calgary.

"My concern is this growing phenomenon of gang-related murders, therefore, that has to be stopped and something has to be done about it," he said.

"I would suggest we need 1,000 police officers. For God sakes, Alberta is rich, Calgary is rich; why can't we hire more police officers?"

Marchant said his force is doing everything it can as investigations into the city's two latest homicides continue.