Rash of 'targeted and related' shootings have police on high alert
Increased patrols in areas where shootings, car fires and smashed windows happened; police not ruling out drug trade behind incidents
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Fredericton police say four shootings, two car fires and smashed windows at a home in recent days are all “intentional, targeted and related.”
In a news release, police said three of those reports of shootings happened at a single residence on Royal Road near Williams Street on April 12, April 15, and again on Monday night, but police won’t give the address.
“We can’t disclose the exact address at this point, as it is still an active investigation, with suspects, persons of interest, victims and witnesses all involved. We provided a range instead, for awareness,” police spokesperson Sonya Gilks wrote in an email.
Shots were also fired at a house on School Street on Sunday at 2 a.m., police said.
Police said windows were smashed at a home in the 600 block of Forest Hill Road late Saturday night, and a police were called to a pair of vehicle fires – one on Saturday night at a home on Sunset Drive near Claremont Drive and another the night before at a home on Bear Drive in Sitansisk (St. Mary’s) First Nation, where the community has since reinstalled its security gates.
While police said its street and drug unit is among those investigating the rash, Wilks would not confirm if the city’s illegal drug trade was behind the outbreak of violence, but wouldn’t rule it out either.
“The possibility of drugs being a root cause of these instances is not being excluded as an investigative avenue at this point,” she wrote.
She said the force has increased patrols and “investigators have been on the scene and working with the communities, neighbors, businesses, etc. near the locations of the occurrences.”
Nobody has been injured in these most recent crimes, and police say the general public is not in danger “at large,” but that “it is recognized that these reckless acts of violence jeopardize the safety and security of our entire community.”
Police are looking to the public for help in identifying suspects, and are particularly looking for anyone with dash cam footage or video surveillance in any of those areas on those dates.
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