1 dead, 1 injured in shooting outside Kensington Safeway
Victim found a few blocks south in downtown Calgary
One person is dead after a shooting Wednesday night outside the Kensington Safeway in northwest Calgary.
It happened at about 9:15 p.m. at the grocery store on 10th Street and Third Avenue N.W., said Staff Sgt. John Guigon.
About 15 minutes later, the driver of a black SUV approached on-duty Calgary Fire Department members in the 1000 block of Sixth Avenue S.W., seeking help for a passenger who had been shot, police said in a release.
Fire crews attempted life-saving measures, but the victim was declared dead at the scene.
The driver of the vehicle fled the area before police arrived.
A second person was injured in the shooting and was taken to hospital from the scene in Kensington.
The homicide unit is investigating.
Ian Cameron was shopping at the Safeway when the incident happened.
"Apparently there was some shooting between two cars, quite a few shots apparently," he said. "This stuff is happening way too much right now. We seriously need to do something about this."
'Calgary remains a safe city'
The shooting Wednesday night happened just hours after shots rang out amid fight on a bus in downtown Calgary. That earlier incident left a person fighting for their life in hospital.
Outside the Kensington Safeway on Thursday afternoon, Chief Mark Neufeld of the Calgary police spoke to reporters about recent violent episodes in the city, several of which involved transit or occurred in other public places.
"As for me personally, I am disgusted, to tell you the truth, with what's going on in our city," he said.
However, the chief said, that despite the recent headlines, Calgary is not experiencing a statistical increase in violent crime.
"I want to reassure Calgarians that Calgary remains a safe city," Neufeld said.
So far this year, there have been 28 shootings in Calgary, including the one in Kensington, the chief said, explaining this marks a 42 per cent drop from the same time last year, when 48 shootings had been recorded.
Additionally, the year-to–date figure for homicides is also down. Last year at this time, there'd been 10 homicides in Calgary. This year, the figure stands at four, a drop of 60 per cent.
While Neufeld said it's understandable that people might not feel safe in light of recent incidents in public places, he stressed that most violent crime in the city involves people who know each other.
Neufeld said the people involved in the bus shooting are believed to be known to each other and that an arrest warrant will soon in issued in that case.
As for the Kensington shooting, the chief said the two victims were known to Edmonton police.