Calgary core getting safer, councillor says
Man found dead in alleyway in downtown’s Beltline neighbourhood
CALGARY As homicide detectives investigate a man’s death in the Beltline, a city councillor says the downtown neighbourhood has become increasingly safer.
Paramedics were called to the alley behind Safeway on 12th Avenue S.W. at about 11:20 p.m. Sunday following reports a man had been assaulted in a fight.
The victim was found dead at the scene.
Police tape continued to cordon off the scene Monday morning, with dozens of evidence markers scattered across the alley. A pool of blood could be seen on the pavement.
If the man’s death is classified a homicide, it would be the Beltline’s second in the past few months.
Mustafe Mohamud Hussein was in a coma for a month after he was seriously injured in a fight in the 100 block of 10th Avenue S.E. on the morning of July 3. He was taken off life support on Aug. 5.
Fuad Yasir Ali, a 28-year-old Calgary man, has been charged with second-degree murder.
In the first eight months of the year, police responded to 156 nondomestic assaults in the Beltline, a nearly 10 per cent increase over the same period last year. Police data show a steady increase of these crimes during the same period in each of the past three years.
From January to August in 2012, police reported 115 non-domestic assaults in the downtown neighbourhood, followed by 132 in 2013 and 142 in 2014.
The area has also seen its population jump by 11.5 per cent since 2012, rising to nearly 22,000 this year.
Coun. Evan Woolley, who represents a swath of downtown neighbourhoods, said reports he has reviewed show that crime in the Beltline has dropped significantly in the past five years. But he noted there are concerns with crime in surrounding neighbourhoods, such as Sunalta and Bankview.
Woolley also pointed to surveys that indicate Calgarians feel safe. A city satisfaction survey commissioned in 2014 found that 84 per cent of respondents felt very or reasonably safe in their neighbourhoods, with results in the Beltline mirroring the citywide trend.
“Are there ongoing safety concerns? Absolutely. Policing and public safety is a forever exercise,” Woolley said. “We need to ensure that our police always have the tools at their disposal to make our communities and neighbourhoods as safe as they can possibly be.”