GUNS, DRUGS DRIVING UP BODY COUNT: POLICE
Homicide total for 2016 jumps to 19, putting city on a grim record pace
Edmonton’s homicide total has risen to 19 this year, and police say an increase in gun crime and victims’ ties to drugs and “street level” crime have contributed to the body count.
Police Supt. Mark Neufeld spoke Friday about the recent rash of homicides on Friday, the same day it was announced that another two deaths are being investigated as murders.
Of this year’s 19 confirmed homicides, 10 have been the result of gunshots.
“There’s certainly more guns on the street. Our organized crime expert reports that gun seizures are up,” Neufeld said. “These are not guns that are grandpa’s .22 stolen off the farm. These are high-end guns and that is definitely a concern for us.”
Neufeld said increasing break and enters and weapon smuggling over the Canadian border are two ways more guns are ending up on the streets.
Last year, 12 out of 31 homicides were gun related.
Aside from the shooting deaths of Irfan Ahmed Qureshi and Suzanne Marie Tran, which are being investigated as a double homicide, Neufeld said none of the killings are connected.
However, he said the victims have tended to share certain characteristics.
“What continues to be present, however, are the identified risk factors related to substance abuse and drug-related conflict. Also, the tragic events continue to involve individuals who have been criminally active and have criminal associates and friends,” Neufeld said.
He said “very few” of the deaths have been gang related and said that the conflict involving drugs isn’t happening at a high level.
“It’s just people who are having a difficult time coping with life and there’s conflict around that. And it’s resulting in deaths and it’s tragic,” Neufeld said.
Four of the homicide victims have been women and 15 are men. Police believe domestic violence was a factor in two cases.
On Friday, Edmonton reached the same number of homicides as this time of year in 2011, when the city experienced a record setting 48 homicides.
At this time in 2015, Edmonton police had six homicide investigations on the books.
The 2011 workload resulted in 10 additional detectives being added to the homicide section. Neufeld said those additional resources have been helpful.
“It made the first 19 homicide investigations of this year easier to deal with than the first 19 that we dealt with in 2011,” Neufeld said.
Officers have been borrowed from across the force, and even the RCMP, on an ad hoc basis, to help with the recent rash of killings.
Five deaths have been ruled homicides in the last week alone.
An autopsy confirmed that human remains discovered March 21 in the area of 34 Street and 257 Avenue belong to Awet Mehari Ghebre. He had been killed, but no cause of death has been revealed.
Ghebre, 23, was reported missing to Edmonton police in July 2015, when his family lost communication with him.
An autopsy also determined that the death of Nikita Lee Healy, 26, whose body was discovered Wednesday in an apartment in the area of 110 Avenue and 84 Street, was a homicide. Healy died as a result of gunshot wounds.
Police on Friday also provided the identity of a man who died of gunshot wounds, but whose body was found in a burned out suite in an apartment building on Tuesday. The victim has been identified as Blair William Schmidt, 30. On Thursday police asked the public for help in identifying the man, but the medical examiner was able to confirm his identity.
Suspects have been arrested and charged in two of the 19 deaths this year, and Neufeld said he expects investigators will be providing “positive updates” in the coming weeks.
“We’re not standing around scratching our head and wondering whodunnit on all of them. In fact, that’s happening on very few of them.”