Gottingen Street fatal shooting could be connected to Tyler Richards's death
'You wake up and there's another young man dead,' says anti-violence activist
Halifax Regional Police say Tuesday night's fatal shooting on Gottingen Street was a homicide and that it could be connected to the death of Tyler Richards — a former Halifax Rainmen player who was shot and killed over the weekend.
"Any time we have one and then another shooting shortly after that have commonalities, we are always concerned that they may continue on," said Deputy Chief Bill Moore.
"It doesn't appear to be random at this point."
In Tuesday night's shooting, a 23-year-old Dartmouth man died and a 31-year-old Halifax man was badly hurt on the 2000 block of the north-end Halifax street.
'Stop any retaliation'
"We fully expect that there are people in the community that are aware of what's going on and we would welcome any information they can provide us to try to, number one — stop any retaliation — or anything that may be thought about and number two to try to assist us in getting this solved," said Moore.
"If there is a feeling that there's those out there that feel that they want to retaliate, or whatever, that we would ask that information on that be passed along and hopefully cooler heads will prevail."
2nd fatal shooting in a week
No one has been arrested in Tuesday night's shooting, nor in Richards's death.
Moore says there will be a larger police presence in the Gottingen Street area as a result of the shooting, which came just days after Richards was found dead in a house on Cook Avenue.
His death is considered a homicide — the third fatal shooting in recent weeks. Another man, Joseph Douglas Cameron, was shot dead in Dartmouth at the end of March. Police say there is no information linking Cameron's death to the two this week.
Victims' names not disclosed
In the city's latest shooting, Halifax Regional Police responded to reports of gunfire at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
"Upon arrival officers encountered two males in a vehicle," said Sgt. Nancy Rudback.
Police said an autopsy is being done on the 23-year-old Dartmouth man, who died at the scene. His name won't be disclosed until police have notified his next of kin, they said.
The 31-year-old Halifax man was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, but police say his condition has improved.
Police focus has shifted to Portland Place. Imvestigators are behind the old Marquee. <a href="https://twitter.com/CBCNS">@CBCNS</a> <a href="https://t.co/DOew1RZ6cG">pic.twitter.com/DOew1RZ6cG</a>
—@SteveBerryCBCStop the Violence march
Quentrel Provo, who founded the anti-violence group Stop the Violence after his cousin and best friend Kaylin Diggs was killed in 2012, is planning a weekend march in response to the latest fatal shooting.
He said the latest killing shows the scale of the problem.
"You wake up and there's another young man dead. A mother's waking up, hearing that she lost her son," he told Information Morning on Wednesday. "This is not women killing women. This is our young men killing each other."
He said enough is enough. He's planning a march on Gottingen Street at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
'We've got to come together'
"I'm calling all young men, all the fathers out there from every community, every race — we've got to come together."
Provo said he's faced backlash for taking a stand against the violence.
"I've had threats. I've had people tell me, 'You're not going to do this. You're not going to stop the violence.' But if I can change just one [person], that's a big difference. That's a life saved."
Provo's group put out a Tyler Richards Tee top to raise money for the family of the man killed on Sunday.
A film that Provo is in, called North Preston: A Look Past Stigma, will be featured at this week's Emerging Lens festival. It's produced by Arta Rexhepi.