Western Standard - Shooting at West Edmonton Mall forces lockdown

00:00:00.000 Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us here today. My name is Darren

00:00:20.080 Dirkall and I'm currently in the Asking Chief position for the Eminent Police Service and

00:00:25.160 we've asked you to join us here today for a few reasons. First, we want to provide you

00:00:30.000 with some additional context around the shootings at Westthampton Mall. Secondly, we want to

00:00:34.480 reassure the citizens of Edmonton that their safety is still sound and we believe this was

00:00:40.360 a targeted incident. It wasn't random in nature. And finally, to correct some of the misinformation

00:00:45.160 out there that has been circulating online and social media. So last night around 7.40

00:00:51.680 PM police responded to a report of a shooting at Westthampton Mall and it was reported that

00:00:56.960 four males left the mall and went to their vehicle. When a second vehicle, a white coloured SUV,

00:01:03.020 approached them and subsequently resulted in an exchange of gunfire. Two of the males collapsed

00:01:09.600 on the pavement with serious injuries and the two others fled into the mall. One into the

00:01:14.200 Wild West shooting range with gunshot wounds while the other fled through the mall and we

00:01:18.680 do not believe that individual sustained any injuries. And at this time, the fourth male

00:01:23.960 has not been located nor have the occupants of the white SUV. That being said, we believe

00:01:32.140 we've recovered the SUV that was involved in the shooting. It's just currently being seized

00:01:37.580 and it's very preliminary. We can't confirm if it was or not, but we believe it may be. Various

00:01:44.020 police resources and units citywide were deployed to the scene, including our tactical team as

00:01:49.300 there was an imminent concern for public safety. The mall was placed on lockdown and tactical

00:01:53.940 officers swept the building. Officers eventually recovered a handgun from inside the mall believed

00:01:59.380 to be that of one of the people involved in the shooting. As mentioned in our updates overnight,

00:02:06.580 we believe this was a targeted incident between two groups and the events leading up to the shooting

00:02:11.780 are evidence of that. Who those groups are and their motivations behind the shooting is still not

00:02:17.460 clear. However, we do not believe there is any risk to the community at this time. As with any major

00:02:24.900 incident in a public place, we understand citizens are very concerned, especially those who were either

00:02:30.260 working or visiting the mall last night. We know there was a lot of misinformation circulating, including

00:02:36.340 suggestions that multiple people were deceased, which was thankfully not the case. I want to be

00:02:42.660 clear about one thing though. We are incredibly lucky that nobody lost their lives yesterday,

00:02:47.540 that no innocent people were injured and that police were able to respond and now gather evidence.

00:02:52.980 We are grateful for all the witnesses who came forward to speak to our officers.

00:02:56.260 I want to remind citizens to obtain their news from professional and legitimate media sources,

00:03:03.060 or from our website and social media pages directly. This will help limit the misinformation

00:03:08.740 that gets out there. And secondly, during a major incident, we ask citizens to refrain from filming and

00:03:14.580 posting all this on social media, as this can put you and our officers at risk. And before we move into

00:03:21.300 any questions, I want to express my appreciation for West End of Mall Security, who assisted us with this

00:03:26.180 lockdown. And I want to thank our officers and first responders who continue to show up day in and

00:03:31.780 day out to ensure that our city remains safe. The last three days have been incredibly taxing our

00:03:38.580 officers citywide, but they continue to show their resilience and dedication to the job of serving and

00:03:44.580 protecting. I'll take a few questions, but understand please that there's still this is very early in

00:03:50.580 investigation. So I won't be able to confirm some things. And I won't be able to talk about some

00:03:55.620 of the evidence that we are gathering.

00:04:01.140 Arthur Green, Western Standard. Are Mexican drug cartels operating here on the street in Edmonton?

00:04:08.820 And how much of a threat is the red alert gang to residents of Edmonton?

00:04:14.180 Arthur Green, Western Standard. Right now, with the West End of Mall shooting that we're looking at,

00:04:18.660 it doesn't look like that's the case in this instance. Obviously, there's a lot of other

00:04:24.580 investigations, intel and other things that we follow up.

00:04:30.980 Hi, I'm Morgan Black from Global Edmonton. I'm just wondering, you mentioned that the handgun was

00:04:35.220 found inside the mall. Do you mind just being specific about what events took place outside West

00:04:39.860 Edmonton Mall related to the shooting and what took place inside the mall?

00:04:42.900 Yeah, I'll give you a little bit. So why we say it's targeted is there was four individuals that

00:04:47.540 pulled into the parking lot, parked their sedan and went into the mall. When they came back approximately

00:04:53.380 40 minutes later, a vehicle that was sitting in the parking lot waiting pulls up and that's when

00:04:57.620 the shooting occurred outside the mall. Okay, and then you mentioned there was a handgun found inside

00:05:01.860 the mall. Yeah, there was two individuals that ran into the mall, one into the Wild West shooting and

00:05:06.900 one into the mall. And I don't know the exact location, garbage can or that kind of thing. I just know that

00:05:11.300 a gun has been recovered and we believe it to be involved. And then I'm not sure how deep you can

00:05:15.380 get into this, but you said events leading up to the shooting kind of gave you some more information.

00:05:20.740 Are you able to be more specific? Yeah, and that's just what I what I reveal now is because of

00:05:25.380 security witness statements, you know, they park the vehicle, they go in and it looks like somebody was

00:05:29.700 waiting for them and approached when they returned to the vehicle.

00:05:35.940 Darcy Rothchan, City News. EPS reiterated this several times with folks getting their news from

00:05:42.020 legitimate sources. You mentioned some of the hassles you had with video on social media, false

00:05:46.660 reports. Can you just go into a little bit of detail how that makes the investigation a challenge

00:05:51.220 when you have all this floating around on social media? Yeah, I mean, what was happening was there was

00:05:56.100 a lot of information like I think even one of them was saying that, you know, there's deceased people

00:05:59.940 at the mall and that creates a lot of panic, especially for some of the people that were at

00:06:03.940 the mall that are maybe paying attention to social media misinformation. They're filming things and

00:06:11.380 putting it on on live social media where our officers are clearing the mall and walking through it.

00:06:16.980 Well, that can even alert the bad guys. Maybe they're paying attention to it as well, right? So

00:06:21.140 it just gets really complicated and it confuses a lot of things. It even confuses our officers

00:06:26.100 that are hearing different things, right? They got to stay focused on the evidence that they have

00:06:29.780 and what they're gathering in. And the second thing I wanted to ask is you said the driver or

00:06:34.980 the white SUV, the occupants were not found yet. So those would be the shooters. So we haven't

00:06:39.220 identified them. Haven't identified them yet. You said there's no concern to the community, but

00:06:43.300 obviously that must be a concern to you folks. And when I say no concern to the community is more that

00:06:48.580 this was targeted event. It wasn't just a random, you know, people leaving the mall that were targeted.

00:06:52.900 Obviously, there's still great concern when these things happen in public spaces.

00:06:59.060 Hi, Jeremy Thompson, CTD Edmonton. You said that the mall security has been really good to work

00:07:04.740 with here. Just can you elaborate at all? You know, what sort of role did they play in the early

00:07:09.220 response and sort of help them with this? Yeah, they're video surveillance. They were able to track

00:07:14.660 and watch some of the movements that were happening. You know, even lead us toward the evidence or where the

00:07:20.340 person exited and we checked the area and found some evidence. Clearing that mall, I think there

00:07:26.180 was over 200 people that were in the movie theater. They weren't under imminent threat, but we had to

00:07:30.740 get them out as we're clearing it and looking. So, I mean, they assisted us in a lot of that.

00:07:36.660 I seem, and maybe it's not my memory, but our organization's memory, there used to be a police

00:07:42.100 commuted police station in the mall. I think at one point, maybe the mall had kind of a quasi-police

00:07:47.220 force of its own. I guess, would either of those maybe aided in this situation at all? Or I guess,

00:07:53.620 what can you say about sort of the response time it takes for police to respond? It's a massive

00:07:58.820 mall to kind of go in? Yeah, I mean, having more resources than that available may have. You know,

00:08:05.940 we don't know, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt to have resources that are there. Again, the security at

00:08:13.220 West Edmonton Mall has been really good and cooperative, and they have a lot of good processes

00:08:18.020 and professional people in place to assist us. Preston Hodgkinson with Mix 107.9 and Fort Sask

00:08:26.340 Online. You mentioned that you guys believe that you've recovered the SUV involved. Do you expect

00:08:34.020 to release any descriptions of the suspects in the near future here? Oh, if we get that, we hope,

00:08:40.100 yeah. Like, if it can move this investigation forward, determine who the suspects are and get

00:08:44.420 them under arrest, absolutely. But just finding the vehicle, we need to determine if it was the

00:08:50.420 actual vehicle involved, and then we've got to do forensics on it. We're not quite there yet.

00:08:54.260 Thank you.

00:08:58.340 And Travis McEwen, CBC News. Do we have the ages of the victims at all?

00:09:02.580 I don't have that. I think we're still, just because there was some medical

00:09:09.700 intervention. We haven't even had time to actually get a good statement from them yet. We're just

00:09:13.860 working on that, I think, now. So yeah, I don't have that information.

00:09:18.340 But the lockdown in this instance, who made the call on that? Is that a recommendation

00:09:23.060 after reports, or is that all on the malls?

00:09:25.060 Yeah, so I was in touch with the duty officer last night, and just in consultation and stuff,

00:09:31.460 usually it's his call, or his or her call, to make that determination to ensure public safety,

00:09:37.540 and I was aware that that's what was going to happen. And then we liaized with our corporate

00:09:42.420 comms to make sure that message gets out to the public as well.

00:09:44.900 Hi, Johnny Wakefield with the Edmonton Journal. I'm just wondering, have you been able to

00:09:52.660 definitively rule out that this had nothing to do with the violence that we saw over the weekend

00:09:56.980 with the rioting?

00:09:57.860 No, we're looking at that. That still hasn't been determined and haven't ruled it in or out.

00:10:03.780 But yeah, that's something that we're looking at.

00:10:05.780 And just to clarify, is there still an EPS detachment station

00:10:10.580 in West Edmonton Mall?

00:10:12.100 I don't think there is, no.

00:10:13.060 Was there ever?

00:10:14.260 Not a few years ago.

00:10:15.780 I wouldn't call it a detachment. It was more like, I think they called it like beat officers,

00:10:19.220 and that was like the community station that was there.

00:10:21.620 Okay, so there was something, but there was not.

00:10:23.700 And I don't think it's no longer there.

00:10:25.540 Okay.

00:10:28.900 You know, you mentioned this in your opening remarks, talking about

00:10:33.060 innocent people could have been hurt in this. And we have seen a lot of increase in gun violence

00:10:36.580 in Edmonton. What's your message to people that, you know, this happened in a place where a lot of

00:10:41.380 people go every day? This feels very, you know, somebody, anybody could have been there at West Edmonton Mall,

00:10:46.260 if people are concerned.

00:10:47.220 And that's the concern, right? But, you know, honestly, I think it's

00:10:51.540 just being aware of your surroundings, know that, you know, like if something happens,

00:10:54.900 or if you see something kind of going down, to make sure that you get to a safe place, really,

00:10:59.700 right? It's again, I mean, we're seeing more and more violence, but incidents like this

00:11:05.220 are still very isolated and rare. But when they do happen, I mean, be prepared to get to a safe place.

00:11:12.980 And then again, broadly speaking, what do you think can be done on the EPS front about this,

00:11:20.020 knowing that, again, violent incidences between two groups, but impacting folks who are just going to

00:11:26.980 the mall?

00:11:27.300 Yeah, I mean, we continue to work with our gang suppression gang teams, alert any intel that

00:11:33.380 our frontline members are able to get us. And it's, it's just ongoing investigations and

00:11:38.420 trying to get the intel to determine who's involved and why. And if any incidents happen,

00:11:45.220 hopefully we can stop them before they get to this level.

00:11:52.260 Hi, Keith Jordan from the Edmonton Journal. The people you've identified who were injured,

00:11:58.260 have they been helpful at all to your investigation at this point?

00:12:02.100 Yeah, it's too early. I think we're right at that stage right now. If I'm correct, I think they're

00:12:06.900 trying to get the statements, you know, getting the nods that that's what we're working on. So I,

00:12:10.740 it's too early to say if they're uncooperative or not, but hopefully we get what we need.

00:12:17.380 And how likely is it, would you say, that there could be further incidents between these two groups?

00:12:24.340 Too early to tell. I mean, that's what the intel, what we're working on, right? I don't,

00:12:30.100 it's way too early to say that this is an ongoing feud or violence that's going to continue.

00:12:35.620 It's always concerning when something that to this level happens when they're targeted,

00:12:40.340 because the fear is that the retribution is going to happen, right? But that's something that we're

00:12:44.260 working on and hopefully we can make some arrests before that happens. 0.86

00:12:48.340 Arthur Green, Western Standard again. Can you tell us how many shots were fired in total?

00:12:53.060 Oh, I don't have that information. I think that's still to determine that.

00:12:57.380 And were you told where the victims, where were they shot? How serious are their injuries?

00:13:02.100 Um, you know what, I, I, just from what I've heard, it was like in the arm,

00:13:06.900 in the side of the stomach, in the leg, that kind of thing. So serious, but not life threatening.

00:13:11.940 Hi, Rod Maldonado from CityTV. He said in your opening remarks that fire,

00:13:16.980 gunfire was exchanged. Did both parties shoot and were they injured all from one party?

00:13:21.860 Uh, not determined yet because we don't know the suspects from the SUV,

00:13:28.260 but at this point I could say that it looked like there was an exchange apparent fire.

00:13:31.700 Thank you.

00:13:32.100 I'm only going to take a couple more. I think as this goes on, it's just...

00:13:38.020 This isn't related. I know it's early, but does it seem like this, that there was a

00:13:42.900 hit a few months ago in the West End, where an attempted hit on somebody.

00:13:47.940 Is this related at all or is this still under the radar as part of...

00:13:51.220 It's something we're looking at and honestly, that we've just, we've been having that discussion.

00:13:55.300 I know the investigators are talking about that. Um, as we get more forensic evidence,

00:13:59.940 as we start getting names and suspect information, intel coming in,

00:14:04.180 we'll determine that, but it's still too early to tell.

00:14:06.260 What about the difficulty of securing the space as big as West End Channel?

00:14:10.660 Do you mind just giving a bit more details into how you...

00:14:12.580 Yeah, I think at first it goes, it goes big, but then we, we narrow it down to where,

00:14:17.620 you know, the incident happened and where the evidence is and that kind of thing.

00:14:20.500 So, I mean, yeah, at first it's very overwhelming, especially when you've got that many people

00:14:24.340 moving through and they could, you know, damage some evidence or that kind of thing.

00:14:28.500 But, uh, I think we believe that we were able to get the crime scenes down to

00:14:33.140 certain areas very quickly and then we did our forensics.

00:14:37.220 Sorry, one more really quick clarification. All the shooting was outside the mall?

00:14:40.820 Yes. Yes. Correct. Yeah, that's, that's right. All right. Okay. All right. That's, that's it for today.

00:14:47.940 No, thanks everyone.

00:14:48.820 Thank you.

Western Standard - August 22, 2023

Shooting at West Edmonton Mall forces lockdown

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