Mayor seeks community’s help to curb gun violence
Competitive nature of drug trafficking at root of shootings, police chief says
The mayor and police chief renewed a plea to the community for help in solving a rash of gun violence that has erupted with 12 shootings across the city in the early weeks of 2018.
Following a Friday afternoon briefing in the mayor’s office between police brass and councillors chairing the city’s police and community safety boards, Mayor Jim Watson echoed Chief Charles Bordeleau’s call, saying, “We need the community’s help, plain and simple.”
No arrests have been made in the recent rash of shootings that has left seven victims and two homicides.
Watson and Bordeleau each expressed confidence in the investigations, with the chief calling street gangs and gun-related violence the force’s “No. 1 operational priority.”
Bordeleau also addressed questions about staffing after the Sûrété du Québec brought in a special task force to assist Gatineau police, citing the rise in Ottawa’s gang violence. Ottawa police have added 75 officers over three years with a budget forecast for 90 more.
The city is also bracing for the return of the Hells Angels to their Carlsbad Springs compound. Bordeleau also referenced the recent arrest of a member of the biker gang who police believe was “establishing himself ” in the city.
The recent shootings are all targeted, with a small number of offenders in street-level gangs, “both structured and unstructured,” said Bordeleau. “We don’t see this as high-level organized crime impacting and involved in the street violence that is taking place.
“The foundation (of shootings and associated violence) is around drug trafficking. Whether it’s marijuana, whether it’s opioids, it is generally related to an increased trafficking in drugs and the competitive nature of that business.”
Bordeleau expressed his frustration, saying while police are taking a targeted approach with “amplified” compliance checks, “The reality is that some individuals that are out there are very well-known to police and they continue to reoffend. … That is frustrating for our police officers because they’re going back at them again.
“Nine of the 14 people we arrested on Project Sabotage, where we recovered 24 guns and (laid) over 300 charges, nine of them are out on bail as we speak. And some of them have a long history of violent crime in our community, so it is frustrating (but) that is part of the system we work within.”
With several recent shootings in communities like Bells Corners and Findlay Creek, Bordeleau told residents “no specific neighbourhood is being targeted.”
“It’s not geographically based, it’s very much mobile. So they’re not targeting neighbourhoods, they’re targeting themselves. And it’s very mobile and fluid events we’re dealing with, and that presents some challenges.”
Watson said the community can play a key role in a solution to the violence.
“It can’t always be the state or the police enforcing this, there has to be some responsibility at home, and individuals at home have to take some responsibility because sadly, the consequences of them going down the path of illegal activity, they could end up being shot and killed because they went down the wrong path.
“So families have some responsibility, neighbourhoods … it’s very frustrating when neighbours will not even comment on which direction a car went after (a shooting).
“This has become an issue that has spread throughout the city, it’s not just the traditionally challenged neighbourhoods. It’s gone to places like Findlay Creek, (where) you never hear of criminal activity like a shooting,” said Watson.
“We are a safe community. But when you live in a neighbourhood that has seen gun violence or has seen a murder, that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans, us saying that.”