A suspect has been charged with second-degree murder in a shooting in British Columbia’s northeast that left one person dead and another injured.
Mounties in Dawson Creek say a 23-year-old man has been arrested and remains in custody pending a court appearance Thursday.
The shooting took place on Jan. 19, and police say the second person who was hurt remains in hospital.
Investigators say the shooting was not random, and the suspect and the victims knew each other.
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Police say they are also “looking at other ongoing investigations within the Dawson Creek area,” which may lead to additional charges.
The arrests come the day after the RCMP announced it is sending additional officers to Dawson Creek following a spate of violence in the community of roughly 12,400 people, which also includes a drive-by shooting in which nobody was injured.
Police say these incidents appear to be gang-related and that members of several provincial units, including the Uniform Gang Enforcement Team and Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, will be deployed to the city located about 400 kilometres by car north of Prince George, near the B.C.-Alberta border.
Local news is disappearing, so we asked viewers for their stories. One person pointed us to Dawson Creek, B.C., where residents feel besieged by killings and a wave of disappearances. Many residents say the RCMP has evaded accountability. Until now.
Dawson Creek has already been dealing with the fallout from a series of violent incidents going back several years, which was the subject of a CBC Fifth Estate investigation broadcast last fall.
The investigation found that, since 2021, 11 people have gone missing or been murdered in the community, a dramatic increase given that just seven years before, the city had only one recorded homicide.
At the time, RCMP Supt. Sanjaya Wijayakoon said he expected to announce developments in some of the more high-profile cases in the near future, but so far, no leads or arrests have been publicly shared.
North District RCMP Insp. Steve McLeod said Wednesday in a statement that police continue to take the issues facing the city seriously.
“Dawson Creek RCMP will continue conducting dedicated, proactive enhanced enforcement initiatives, focusing our efforts on apprehending those responsible for violent and often public offences,” he said.
“Through proactive policing measures, we are committed to ensuring community safety in the community of Dawson Creek.”
Darcy Dober, the mayor of Dawson Creek, said police in the town are doing everything they can under the circumstances and expressed support for them — even as he acknowledged that the violence was “disheartening.”
“You get these things that happen, and it makes it out to look like it’s this horrible place, but it’s really not, right?” he said.
“It’s targeted. It’s gang stuff. It’s not out in the streets, right? Like, it’s unfortunate.”
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