CALGARY — One man died and a second person was injured Wednesday night after a shooting in a neighbourhood immediately north of Calgary's downtown.
The shooting near a grocery store in the Kensington business district resulted in a major police response, including a helicopter circling the area.
It happened on the same day as a midday shooting on a Calgary Transit bus near a busy library in the city's downtown.
"I am disgusted — to tell you the truth — with what's going on in our city," Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld told reporters Thursday at a news conference at the scene of the Kensington shooting.
Bullet holes were visible behind him in the window of a townhouse.
"When we are seeing bullet holes in areas of our city, beautiful areas, highly populated areas of our city like this, we're seeing incidents on our transit and other public spaces that are causing people to feel unsafe, causing people to feel like they cannot use transit infrastructure, causing people to feel like they can't go downtown and engage in all of the things that they want to do and should do, that is a huge problem."
Police said in a news release that officers were called for reports of gunshots around the same time as a driver of a Black SUV approached on-duty firefighters in the downtown seeking help for a passenger in his vehicle who had been shot.
Firefighters attempted to save the man, but police said he died at the scene and the driver fled before officers arrived.
EMS spokesman Adam Loria said paramedics also responded to both locations, declaring the man dead in the downtown and transporting one person to hospital with minor injuries.
Police said officers are working to confirm the injured person's involvement in the shooting, but believe they could have been with the person who died.
It was the latest in a series of violent crimes in high-traffic areas.
Earlier Wednesday, a man was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition after the shooting on the bus. A stabbing also took place on another bus early Thursday in an apparent dispute over loud music, said Neufeld.
The chief said none of the crimes are connected, other than the fact that they've all happened in public places.
"These incidents are terribly concerning, there's no question about it," he said. "The violence in our city is not OK and it will never, never be tolerated and ... Calgary remains a safe city."
He said there have been 28 shootings in Calgary so far this year, compared to 48 shootings at this time in 2022.
The man killed in Wednesday's shooting is the city's fourth homicide in 2023 — down from 10 a year earlier.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 13, 2023.
Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press
