Brandon Harder
Regina Leader-Post
Weyburn’s mayor says residents are feeling a range of emotions after police announced a woman was fatally shot on a highway near the southern Saskatchewan city on Friday.
Jeff Richards used the words “surprised” and “shocked” during a news conference Monday when he responded to a reporter’s question about how the community is feeling in the wake of the incident.
“Everybody wants to have answers to what happened and we don’t know them,” he said. “And that is unsettling.”
Richards noted that Weyburn is a small, close-knit city, with many residents knowing those who’ve been impacted.
“I think people are sad,” he continued. “I think people are angry, quite frankly, at what happened and not understanding can make it, you know, infinitely more difficult because there’s so many unknowns. So we are putting our faith in our community to stand together and support one another, and trust in the RCMP that they will move this investigation along.”
The RCMP says two women were in a Ford Explorer on Highway 39 around 8 p.m. Friday, driving near grain elevators toward Weyburn, when there was a loud crack.
A 44-year-old passenger from Weyburn was injured and died at the scene. Investigators say she’d been shot.
The victim’s name has not been released. Currently, police say they do not believe releasing the name would forward the investigation, and withholding it respects the privacy of the victim’s family.
The driver, who was the only other person in the vehicle, is not a suspect and was not hurt, according to police.
“At this time, investigation indicates this incident may be random in nature,” stated an early RCMP news release on the incident.
At time of publication, no arrest had been announced.
Come forward
The mayor urged anyone with information to come forward.
“If you know something, don’t withhold,” he said. “Even if you’re not sure if it’s valuable or not, make the call.”
Richards would not comment on whether there is any danger to the public, saying such information would need to come from the RCMP.
When asked if gun violence was a problem in Weyburn, he said no.
“Very isolated,” commented Richards, who thanked first responders for their work at the scene.
“Our thoughts and prayers are obviously with the families impacted by this — friends and relatives, loved ones.”
Joshua Graham, the superintendent in charge of the Saskatchewan RCMP’s Major Crimes Branch, echoed the mayor in urging anyone with information to bring it forward to police, even if it may seem insignificant.
“At the end of the day, it could be that little bit of information that does make that small piece of the puzzle that kind of fits everything together,” he said in an interview on Monday.
Asked what message he had for the person responsible, Graham said: “It would be come forward and talk to the police.”
He added that the RCMP is mindful of the rights of all Canadians, but officers working the case are looking for truth and closure.
“This isn’t something that’s going to go away,” he said.
Avoiding tunnel vision
Graham said while police have no information that would lead them to believe the shooting was an accident, they also don’t have any information that suggests it was intentional.
Graham said he personally dislikes the term “random,” but it was used in this case because nothing about the victim or the vehicle’s other occupant would’ve led police to believe the attack was targeted.
As of Monday, the RCMP was still referring to the death as “suspicious,” and not a homicide. Graham explained that police are awaiting conclusions from a coroner, and officers are still looking to gather more information about what transpired.
“What it comes down to is we don’t want to draw conclusions where we don’t have the evidence to draw that conclusion yet,” he said.
One of the largest pitfalls in conducting death investigations is when an investigator gets “tunnel vision” due to a preconceived notion about what happened without supporting evidence, Graham continued.
When asked whether the same amount of resources were being put toward the investigation despite its classification as suspicious, he said “absolutely.”
Graham explained that front-end loading of resources in such an investigation is the best practice because evidence is “perishable.” Footprints and tire tracks can fade and memories can change or deteriorate.
Concern but no alert, no perimeter
“So there’s always a baseline of concern anytime something like this happens,” Graham said.
In any such unsolved situation, police would like people to be “vigilant” in being aware of their surroundings and reporting anything that may be related.
However, no emergency alert was issued in this instance after what Graham said was careful consideration.
“We certainly had something that was well worthy of the public being notified about,” he acknowledged, adding that police did not have information at the time to suggest there was an “ongoing or active threat,” such as a subsequent crime.
Further, he said, police did not have any information to pass on to the public about what officers were searching for or what civilians should specifically look out for.
“At the end of the day, we felt that if we were to put something out, very generic, it would just cause to serve as panic, you know, and really worry people,” said Graham.
When officers arrived on scene, they did close the road to preserve scene evidence, and a search was conducted in the area, Graham said. But no perimeter was set up around the area to block potential exit routes.
That was the case for a number of reasons, he said. First, the initial responders were busy with lifesaving efforts and crime scene preservation. Further, officers did not have a suspect or suspect vehicle description, or a direction of travel. As well, in the immediate time following the incident, “there wouldn’t have been enough officers to man much of a barricade situation or roadblocks,” Graham added.
Anyone with information related to the incident is urged to call the RCMP (310-RCMP) or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
In an emergency, police remind people to call 911.
— with Canadian Press files
