Police suspect shooters targeted the wrong house
White SUV sought after shots are fired at two houses on same block in Mayfield
Bullets struck the same block of a west Edmonton neighbourhood twice — once in the morning and once in the afternoon on Sunday.
Now police are looking for a white SUV, possibly a GMC Terrain, and a young male Caucasian driver with blond hair who was seen fleeing from the scene both times.
Grandmother Nati Escober had planned to plant strawberry and tomato plants in her Mayfield backyard Sunday morning.
Instead, she was standing in the kitchen, texting a friend in the Philippines, when someone fired about a dozen shots at the back of her house — piercing a wooden fence, shattering a truck window, and making pockmarks on the house’s stucco exterior.
A bullet made it through a bathroom window frame and landed on the floor, minutes after her son was in the room. None of the four people living in the house — including a four-month-old baby — were injured.
“I’m stressed,” Escober said Sunday afternoon, adding she’s scared to go in her backyard to fry a fish for dinner as she had planned.
“I could have been hit,” she said, examining the fence.
Police got a call at 8:46 a.m. Sunday from the family living near 159 Street and 107A Avenue, saying multiple shots had been fired at the back of their house, said Staff Sgt. Frank Metselaar.
“The house that was hit — completely innocent family. No criminality, no ties. It’s kind of a bit of a mystery here. We suspect it’s probably the wrong house, but we’re trying to figure out which was the target,” Metselaar said.
Police are seeking a white SUV that may have been involved and were knocking on doors in the neighbourhood Sunday morning to sleuth out possible motives and the intended target of the shooting, he said.
Then around 3:54 p.m., shots were fired at a nearby house, at 16101 107A Ave., and a white SUV was seen leaving the area, said Staff Sgt. Kevin Neumeier.
Escober said she saw flashes of light out the window — which she initially thought were fireworks — then saw the back of what she thinks was a white SUV drive off westward down the alley following the first incident.
Her son Mark Escober, 32, said he heard a banging sound, like someone dropping something heavy. Mark, who works as a welder, said his wife and baby were in bed at the time. He’s owned the house for about 10 years, and never heard of a shooting in his neighbourhood.
Edward Vargas, who is Mark’s brother and Nati’s son, said the family is shocked by the incident — they don’t have any problems with anyone, he said.
“Why the heck would people do this? We’re good people here.”
He’s grateful the bungalow is constructed with older, stronger materials, so most of the bullets stayed outside the house. “It’s kind of scary to be honest, especially if you have a family,” Vargas said.
We suspect it’s probably the wrong house, but we’re trying to figure out which was the target.