What's behind Edmonton's recent rash of shootings? One expert says look south
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If you’re looking for clues to understanding Edmonton’s current violent crime problem, look a few hundred kilometres south, says one criminologist.
In the past few months, Edmonton has seen an increase in violent crime, including a rash of shootings and a string of homicides.
While the latest gunplay has yet to be subjected to rigorous analysis — criminologists could spend entire careers studying the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on crime — Mount Royal University criminology professor Kelly Sundberg attributes part of the rise to competition among drug traffickers struggling with a locked-down border.
“A lot of it has to do with … the difficulty in getting drugs into the country,” said Sundberg, who previously worked for Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). “It’s harder to move narcotics and contraband across the border right now.”
That has led to increased competition among traffickers, which Sundberg said can turn violent.
“It’s not like people don’t still want their drugs,” he added.
Edmonton recorded seven shootings in the span of a week on Nov. 8 after a motorist fired at another vehicle on Anthony Henday Drive, injuring a 22-year-old man.
The violence began Nov. 2, when three men were hospitalized with gunshot wounds in three separate cases. Two were shot during home invasions on the city’s west side, while the third was shot in southwest Edmonton by three men wearing masks.
The next day, a man was shot near a school in central Edmonton.
Two more shootings occurred in the city Nov. 4, neither of which resulted in injuries.
As of Nov. 5, there had been 127 shootings in Edmonton in 2020, police Chief Dale McFee said in a news conference. Gun crimes were up overall: McFee said police had 284 files involving guns or replica guns, up 14.5 per cent since last year.
None of the victims in the week-long string of shootings died.
According to an EPS report, police had seized 756 guns as of mid-September.
Sgt. Michael Elliott, president of the Edmonton Police Association, said he can only speculate what’s behind the recent violence.
“I don’t know if it’s a combination of COVID, the economy, is it just bad timing?” he said in an interview.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I can tell you from discussions with the members that … the violence has increased. We do know violence has increased, for a fact.”
He says it’s also increasingly common for police officers to turn up guns during their investigations.
“When you talk to members who have been on 20, 25 years or longer, they say that if a member came across a gun in the city, everybody talked about it,” he said.
“Today, it’s almost a daily occurrence.”
Recent months have also seen an increase in homicides. Thirty Edmontonians have died by homicide this year, 11 of those since the beginning of September. Edmonton surpassed its 2019 homicide total earlier this month, though the city remains well below 2011, when a record-setting 48 people were killed.
The recent victims tend to be younger. Their average age was 28 — youngest 13, the eldest 47.
Beyond that, it is difficult to spot any unusual trends. Just three killings resulted in first-degree murder charges, meaning investigators believe the slayings were planned. Second-degree murder charges were laid in 13 cases, while no charges have been filed in the remainder.
Domestic violence, assaults involving weapons and child exploitation cases have also risen during the pandemic.
Canada’s overall crime declined for decades before beginning an upswing five years ago. Between 2015 and 2019, Canada’s crime severity index — a statistical measure that assigns weights to crimes depending on their seriousness — rose from 69.7 to 79.5.
Edmonton’s crime severity — almost usually above the national average due to Alberta’s younger, more male demographic — also increased during that time, from 101.6 to 114.9.
How the pandemic impacts those trends remains to be seen. During the spring quarantine, police said Edmonton’s violent crime was actually down four per cent (though assaults attributed to domestic violence were higher than they were the year prior).
Sundberg said some of the recent gun violence is likely drug-related. He said a large percentage of Canada’s illicit drug supply comes over land borders or through ports, which are under heightened scrutiny during the pandemic.
With the U.S. border closed to non-essential travel since March, CBSA officers are now able to go over what traffic there is with a fine-toothed comb.
“The only things crossing the border are trucks, so (officers) can be more vigilant,” said Sundberg. “Things stand out more now, because the traffic’s down by like 80 per cent or 90 per cent.”
“There’s just a lot more officers, a lot more time to look at things.”
—with files from Dylan Short, Jeff Labine and Anna Junker
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