CALGARY -- First-degree murder charges have been laid against two men and a youth accused in a deadly daylight shooting in Legacy earlier this week.
Joseph Chlala, 19, and Troy Lemke, 35, both of Calgary, along with a 15-year-old male from Ottawa, were arrested at an undisclosed location shortly after the shooting happened Tuesday afternoon near Legacy Parade and Legacy Lane S.E.
The HAWCS helicopter happened to be in the same area and was able to track a vehicle seen leaving the scene.
The 15-year-old cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Police have identified the victim as Christian Navos, 32, of Edmonton.
"We believe this murder was targeted and was connected to a drug-related dispute," said Staff Sgt. Martin Schiavetta, adding police "are strongly looking at the homicide in Legacy being connected to another homicide that occured in our city."
He would not elaborate on which homicide police believe it is connected to but said it happened this year.
"We have a fantastic firearms lab right wthin our service that allows us to examine seized firearms, casing, other ballistic information and make those comparisons and linkages and that's helping us hold these people accountable." he said.
"If you look at the 19 homicides that have occured this year, we have laid charges in 16, which I think is an 84 per cent clearance rate, which is extremely high for any metropolitan city in Canada, and we're very proud of that."
The fact the shooting happened in the afternoon on a residential street and near a playground makes it "extremly concerning for police," he added.
"Obviously we know that stray rounds don't discriminate," said Schiavetta. "Anyone could have been hurt seriously, if not fatally in that community. There's houses, there's children, we're extremely concerned by the level of public violence."
Neither the accused or the victim have ties to the community, said Schiavetta, and police believe they had agreed to meet there.
All three accused are scheduled to appear in court next on July 20.
