Girl's bedroom wall pierced by bullet in deadly Boxing Day shooting
CBC News | Posted: December 27, 2018 10:07 PM | Last Updated: December 27, 2018
At least 4 bullets struck a condo building during an Edmonton arrest that turned deadly
The father of a three-year-old girl whose bedroom wall was pierced by a bullet on Boxing Day has questions about why a police traffic stop that led to a fatal shooting happened in front of a busy residential building.
Jody Day said Thursday he doesn't want to criticize police, but he does have questions about how the incident unfolded.
"I'm doing OK now … obviously it's not something you'd expect to have a close encounter with, a bullet hole in your wall," Day said.
"I am shaken. I don't think there's anything wrong with the neighbourhood. It's just one of those things that can happen anywhere to anybody. It just happened here."
Police shot, killed wanted man
Day lives in the Urban Village condo complex where Edmonton police shot and killed a 34-year-old man on Wednesday. The man, who was wanted on arrest warrants, was shot following an "incident" between the man and responding officers, police said.
No one was home at Day's condo at the time of the shooting, but many residents and visitors were going in and out of the several buildings that make up the complex.
The teal bedroom walls in Day's daughter's room are covered in stickers of Disney characters and now — right in front of the headboard of the young girl's bed — is a hole where a bullet got lodged.
Day had just dropped off his daughter with her grandparents and was out shopping when he got a call from police who wanted access to his unit.
"There was a slight bulge in the inside wall," Day said. "Maybe a slight hole going through. But the officer said, 'We think the bullet is in the wall.' And I believe that proved to be the case."
Police have said they were conducting a traffic stop with the help of a tactical unit around 2 p.m. Wednesday in the area of 79th Avenue and 71st Street.
They stopped a red Chevrolet SUV in the parking lot of the Urban Village complex. Two people got out of the vehicle without incident, police said, but a third person remained in the vehicle and refused to co-operate.
At least four bullet holes now mark the outside walls of the condo building.
Lillian Palsky, a driver with Skip the Dishes, had just dropped off a food delivery inside the adjacent apartment building when she noticed the flash of police lights outside.
"I could see that this red truck was parked, and it had been cut off in the front and back by police vehicles. There was a ton of shouting," Palsky said in an interview with CBC News.
"They were yelling at the guy and had their guns out.
"I was stuck between the outside door and the lobby door, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is getting quite serious.'"
Multiple gunshots
Officers in tactical uniforms began marching across the parking lot, Palsky said. She saw one woman being arrested before the sounds of muffled gunshots rang out.
"She had her hands behind her back. She was pushed up against the truck, and then all of sudden, there was a shot that was fired and she screams, 'Oh no,' and starts crying."
"And then, all of sudden there were just multiple gunshots that went off."
Palsky said she heard at least seven rounds go off, but couldn't see exactly what happened. A large police van blocked her view of the shooting.
Locked out of the main building and unable to reach her car, Palsky watched the scene unfold through the glass doors of the apartment building entryway, filming some of the incident on her phone.
"I don't know why the police started shooting … I didn't know if there was any crossfire happening and here I am standing in front of glass doors."
It felt surreal, like a movie. - Lillian Palsky
Palsky said a man who lived inside the building unlocked the door and let her inside.
She and the man hid inside the lobby near the elevator. Palsky said officers entered the building soon after and began checking the walls for bullet holes.
Within 20 minutes she was told it was safe to leave the scene. She drove away. Palsky said she was never questioned by police.
"It just felt surreal, like a movie," she said.
Shooting under investigation
Alberta's Serious Incident Response Team is now investigating the shooting but could not offer an update on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Day said his girlfriend wants to move out of their home.
His daughter knows there were police in her room and that "something happened."
She's mostly worried that officers "messed up" her room, Day said.