Calgary sees 4 homicides on 1st day of 2009

Calgary police are investigating four homicides that took place during the first day of 2009.

Three males were found at a Calgary strip mall at Macleod Trail and 94 Street S.E. after reports of a shootingat a restaurant therejust before 4 p.m.on Thursday.

"When police arrived, three male victims were found in medical distress: two inside the restaurant and one outside in the parking lot," police said in a news release.

The men were pronounced dead by the time emergency medical personnel arrived.

Duty Insp. Dean LaGrange said the deaths were "not random," but it wasn't known whether they were gang-related. The Organized Crime Operations Centreis involved in the investigation.

The names and ages of the victims haven't been released.

The shootings came on the heels of Calgary's first homicide of the new year, the death of a man in his mid-20s early Thursday morning.

Theunidentified man was one of threeinjured people police foundinfront ofa strip-mall pub on Whitefield Drive when they responded to a call about a fight around 1:30 a.m.

The man was rushed to hospital, where he later died, police said in a news release Thursday.

A second person was also taken to hospital with undetermined injuries.

Police are interviewing a number of people who witnessed the fight as part of their homicide investigation.