Gunfire hits 2 homes in northwest Calgary neighbourhood

Calgary police say two homes were caught in an early-morning shooting in northwest Calgary.

The shooting happened just after 2 a.m., along MacEwan Glen Way, near MacEwan Glen Road and MacEwan Glen Place.

No injuries have been reported, police say.

Multiple neighbours told CTV News off-camera that they heard multiple gunshots and say this is unusual for the area.

Police couldn’t confirm whether the shooting was targeted.

This is the third shooting in Calgary in four days. The others happened in the Marlborough and Abbeydale communities.  

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The recent gun violence has some Calgarians on edge.

One of those homes belongs to Rob Bartlett, who was downstairs in the rec room when the shots were fired. His wife was in bed, as one of the two bullets fired at the home came within a few feet of her head.

“Scares me, scares the living bejesus out of me,” said Bartlett. “What they did, like no regard for people.”

Four people were in the home at the time. The bullet broke a TV and travelled through several rooms.

“A matter of an inch or two either way or up or down and it could have been a whole different story here,” said Bartlett.

“I know the police are doing what they can to stop it, but I think there’s a whole undercurrent in Calgary of people that have chosen to have guns and they’re willing to shoot people. So I don’t know what we’re going to do, but it is a scare,” said Brent Shervey.

Another area resident added, “It definitely concerns me with young kids … I’m really hopeful that it won’t stay this way and we can do something as a community together.”

Police continue to investigate all three shootings.

Anyone with information or security footage is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.  

'A VERY COMPLEX DYNAMIC'

Temitope Oriola, a criminology professor at the University of Alberta, points to organized crime as the underlying issue for the rise in recent in violent crimes.

“These are folks who are focusing on their criminal associates and rivals. It’s a very complex dynamic,” he said.

For things to change for the better, Oriola says the Calgary Police Service (CPS) needs to do more in criminal profiling and intelligence gathering.

“What needs to be done is painstaking community embedded police work,” said Oriola. “Gather intel, recognize how many groups are operating, where they are operating, what kinds of activities they’re involved in, and who are the leading actors.”

On Monday, the Calgary Police Service (CPS) addressed the recent shootings.

“We have already confirmed that several of these shootings were targeted. This does not diminish the risk to Calgarians,” said Calgary Police Service Supt. Cory Dayley.

Dayley said “solving” organized crime can be difficult due to the “lack of cooperation from those involved.”

What Calgary is seeing isn’t out of the ordinary compared to the rest of Canada.

“Unfortunately, consistent with what we're seeing across the country, across North America“ he said. “It is not common that we would see this many days in a row of this type of violence.”

He points to the “greater access” people have to guns as one reason for the rise in violence. The CPS is working to manage offenders from gaining access to firearms.