Edmonton Police Responded To 10 Shootings In Just 9 Days & It 'Severely Impacted' Service
Police believe they were "targeted events."
Edmonton Police
Police in Edmonton are dealing with "stretched resources" after officers have responded to 10 shootings in the city in the last nine days.
In a press release on Tuesday, Edmonton Police said that the first incident had taken place on Sunday, August 28 and five more shootings were carried out over the Labour Day long weekend.
This included two shootings near Whyte Avenue on Saturday; one at a west Edmonton transit terminal; one at a north Edmonton parking lot on Sunday; and another at a north Edmonton restaurant on Monday.
While eight of the shootings ended in serious injuries, all people involved are expected to survive, the police added.
Officers are currently investigating to see if any of the shootings are linked, and charges are already pending for one of the incidents near Whyte Avenue.
Police believe the incidents were all "targeted events" but posed a "considerable" public safety risk due to their public locations.
Staff Sergeant Eric Stewart also revealed that Edmonton police resources were "severely impacted" by the events of the weekend. Police officers have been tied up in investigations across the west, northwest and southern ends of the city.
Sudden spikes in violence, like the shootings, make maintaining service levels and response times "increasingly challenging," he continued.
"These investigations also often tie up multiple investigators from various areas of the service, which ultimately impacts the time we can dedicate to investigating other crimes," Stewart added.
So far, Edmonton Police has responded to 105 shootings in the city since the beginning of the year and over half (53%) of those have resulted in injury.
By the end of August, police had also seized around 452 firearms.
The police have asked witnesses, as well as anyone with information about the shootings, to contact them at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone.
Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.p3tips.com/250.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.