Homicides shake up Chipman
Two men shot dead in farming community about 60 km east of city
A double homicide shattered the sleepy serenity of a small rural Alberta town just outside of Edmonton late Sunday, leaving residents shaken and confused.
Two men were shot at a small brown bungalow at 49 Street and 45 Avenue in the Village of Chipman, a farming community about 60 km east of the city.
RCMP were called to the property shortly before midnight and arrived to find the bodies of the two men.
An adult male was taken into police custody. As of Monday afternoon, no charges had been laid.
For many people who call the town of just under 300 home, the double homicide came as a shock.
When Chipman resident Angie Thurston first heard gunshots, she thought it was a farmer shooting at a coyote.
But soon after, Thurston and her husband, Tim Murphy, who were watching TV, heard another round of gunfire.
“I wasn’t too concerned because we’ve heard gunshots before, and then I heard four to five gunshots go off at one time,” Thurston said Monday.
“I thought, ‘That’s not a farmer, that’s not a coyote.’ ”
Murphy went out into their backyard to investigate when he heard someone screaming.
He immediately called 911 and the dispatcher told him to get his family into the basement and stay away from windows.
Mounties were called to the home at 11:28 p.m.
Murphy, Thurston and their two children — a three-year-old and a six-month-old — raced downstairs, where they waited 45 minutes before returning upstairs.
“I feel safe here. I don’t feel scared living here, but after this, it’s scary,” she said. “You think a place is safe and quiet and apparently it’s not.”
Residents of the small town for a little under a year, Thurston said the family moved away from the city because of several shootings in their Callingwood neighbourhood,
I wasn’t too concerned because we’ve heard gunshots before, and then I heard four to five gunshots go off at one time.
including the death of Edmonton police Const. Daniel Woodall.
Woodall, who had been with the force for eight years, was shot and killed in the area of 182 Street and 62A Avenue in June 2015.
A month earlier, a 33-year-old man was gunned down at a westend construction site close by at 184 Street and Callingwood Road.
“We moved here because we thought it was safe place to live,” she said.
In a Monday news release, the RCMP said they do not believe the Chipman killings were a random event.
Autopsies were scheduled for Tuesday.
Chipman was the scene of another shooting in May 2016, when a man was shot while standing outside a home on 48 Avenue.
The victim suffered serious injuries. The two men involved in the shooting were charged with attempted murder.