Halifax police chief says force taking extra steps to tackle recent gun violence

Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella says the force is taking several additional steps as part of its investigations into a spate of recent homicides and shootings in the city.

The victims have even included children. An 11-year-old was injured in a west-end house during a drive-by shooting and eight-year-old Lee'Marion Cain was shot and killed in Dartmouth on Dec. 21.

Kinsella spoke with Information Morning host Portia Clark on Friday about what police are doing to lay charges in the cases. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

HRP has said the shootings aren't random. What does that mean? 

Generally the incidents of violence are contained to specific individuals or locations. What's very concerning is that we've had two children shot, one of them killed. And this has to stop.There's no information that we have that leads us to believe that either of the children were a target of the violence.

What does it say about the situation we're in here in the Halifax region when people are being shot at during the day — firing, even when kids are around — even if they're not the intended target?

It has to stop. That's that's what has to happen.

We are working very hard here at HRP and with our partners to really generate assistance from the community to help us bring forward any information that they might have. We're doing some other things as well.

Externally, we're trying to make it easier and more comfortable for people in the community to bring information forward. We want to set up a dedicated tip line and we expect to announce details on that next week.

Internally, we're focusing our resources to have an increased presence to both interact with the community, to develop that assistance and conduit for information sharing and also bring enforcement as necessary. And further to that, we've been having enhanced dialogue with the Public Prosecution Service.

So we really are working hard on this and we're putting a lot of attention to it because it does have to stop. 

What do you mean by enhanced dialogue with the Crown?

We're trying to get a better understanding and a better knowledge on the prosecution piece of this, ensuring that we gather and put forward all the best evidence in the cases that we have and try to do our very best to bring an end to the violence.

So in some cases, there's just not enough evidence to lay charges?

That is a correct statement. If we have the evidence, we will lay a charge.

That's why we're appealing to the public to help us. That's why we want to set up the tip line to help us get further evidence. We've had four homicides and three of them were firearms related.

There's a lot of people that know something. They just haven't brought it forward for various reasons.

People know how to call the police. What do the tip lines change in any significant way? 

The tip line will allow them to confidentially, if they want, leave information that may help us follow up.

There's also Crime Stoppers, if they want to leave confidential information.

We're hoping to make us a little more accessible. We know that there's information and we need them to bring it forward.

The feds are giving our province millions to deal with guns and gang violence. How has that had an impact at HRP in terms of finding out where guns are coming from and more importantly, stopping people from using them?

Sourcing guns is something that we work on very closely. We work on it with a number of stakeholders, and we know that there isn't a single source for guns coming in.

In 2022 alone, we have had 67 guns taken off the streets here in each area. Thirty-nine of those were seized either for investigations or public safety purposes.

In 2021, 264 guns were taken off the streets, 135 of those seized in relation to investigations and or public safety.

Every one of those guns is traced and sourced and investigations are done with a number of our law enforcement partners to try to track the origin of those guns, and try to stop that flow.

What kind of understanding do you have about the root causes of these kinds of shootings here in Halifax that your officers end up investigating with young men, mainly, killing each other? 

Many of the cases can be connected to drugs and firearms.

We continue to follow up every lead we have. Again, [we are] making pleas to the public. If you see something, say something. And we'll continue to do that.

Staff are working very hard at solving these crimes. We've solved a number of homicides. It is just getting that little bit of extra information and evidence.

Our officers are out there working hard every single day with a lot of support from other staff within HRP.

Any sense that arrests are imminent in some of these unsolved murders? 

What I can say is that if as soon as the evidence is gathered that will allow for an arrest, we will make that arrest.

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