Calgary's deadliest year since 2015
Half of city's deadly incidents involved guns in the worst 12 months since '15
Shane Smith was drinking with a group of people on a summer night in July when his friend pointed an AR-15 rifle at him in a “joking manner.”
Then he pulled the trigger. No magazine was attached, but a bullet lodged in the chamber struck 20-year-old Smith, a court heard in December. He died instantly. After killing his “best friend,” 26-year-old Ian Charles Abercrombie directed his roommates to dispose of Smith's corpse in the Bow River.
Of the 33 homicides recorded in Calgary in 2020, marking the deadliest year since 2015, Smith's death lingers in the mind of Staff Sgt. Colin Chisholm, who leads the Calgary Police Service homicide unit.
“We try to do what we can for the deceased, bring some resolve to the families and find some justice for the victim who can't speak for himself or herself,” said Chisholm.
“We pretty much did everything we could for the (Smith) family to try to give them closure and locate Shane's body, went to great lengths, but unfortunately we have not been able to find his body.”
Abercrombie will serve 6½ years after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of criminal negligence causing death.
Smith's family said the sentence is a far cry from justice. In heart-wrenching impact statements, the victim's mother said: “I feel I died with my son.” His father said: “I am broken emotionally. I am broken physically.”
Two additional homicides stand out from the past year for Chisholm, including the death in July of 69-year-old Vida Smith, whose remains also have yet to be found, and a hit-and-run in May that killed 15-year-old Ibaad Yar.
Chisholm called the fatal hitand-run “senseless” but could not provide additional details because the case is before the courts. At the time of the incident, police said a vehicle was struck from behind and rolled over. An altercation took place at the scene and the offenders fled. Two suspects are on trial.
“He was a beloved son, loyal brother, faithful friend,” Yar's father said earlier this year. “Now that Ibaad is gone, he took all our joys with him. Our home and hearts are empty without him.”
There's no saying what caused a spike in homicides in 2020, said Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld. Police recorded a dip in 2018 and 2019, at 18 and 21, after seeing higher numbers in 2016 and 2017, with 30 and 31, respectively. In 2015, a record 37 homicides were tracked by police, according to Chisholm.
“The drivers have been a little hard to pick out. It's been obviously conflicts between people who know one another, but not really a lot of trends that we can learn from or get out in front of,” said Neufeld.
The force did see a significant drop in domestic homicides, with only two of 33 cases last year designated as such. In 2019, almost half were considered domestic in nature.
In February, 33-year-old Melissa Rae Blommaert died after her partner allegedly hit her with his vehicle following a verbal altercation.
She was found lying on a northwest roadway early in the morning before being rushed to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
An autopsy determined the cause of death was blunt-force trauma.
Blommaert's husband, Ronald John Candaele, is charged with second-degree murder.
An incident two months later marked the second domestic-related homicide of the year, when 24-year-old Brittney Ann Meszaros was found dead in a northeast residence. Her common-law partner, Alexander Moskaluk, is charged with manslaughter with a firearm.
Last year, about half of the deadly incidents were related to shootings, which outpaced numbers from 2019 — and almost a third linked to stabbings. At least four homicides were the result of bluntforce trauma.
The majority of homicides had links to organized crime, fights and “deadly confrontations” between people known to each another, said Chisholm. Only three were confirmed as drug-related, one in relation to financial gain and four unknown.
Twenty-five of last year's cases have been cleared by charges.
“In a one-year period, that's a very high rate,” said Chisholm. “We don't clear a lot of homicides without significant help from the public and the media, and the attention that garners people's willingness to come forward. (Co-operation) is key for any homicide investigation.”
He said cases that “generally lag behind” are related to organized crime because there is often reluctance for people to come forward out of fear for their safety.
There are a handful of cases in which police are still looking for members of the public to come forward with information.
Chisholm said they expect people have valuable details related to the homicide of Nathanial Goodeye in June, Anthony Taylor in August and a man in his early 20s who was dropped off at the Peter Lougheed Centre with gunshot wounds in October.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their investigations.
“People aren't necessarily as readily available. You have to book interviews in advance,” said Chisholm. “It's just much harder to reach out to people and get them to provide information in a timely manner.”
Calgary's first homicide last year took place New Year's Day. Alpha House resident Barry Cecil was found in medical distress after an altercation the night before. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
On the last day of 2020, with just minutes left until the new year, Calgary Police Service Sgt. Andrew Harnett was killed while conducting a New Year's Eve traffic stop. He died just before midnight, ending what Neufeld called a “year like no other.”
The drivers have been a little hard to pick out. It's been obviously conflicts between people who know one another.