Deadly year in Edmonton with 40 homicides, nearly half drug-related

Staff Sgt. Bill Clark,a veteran homicide detective, tries not to let casesget tohim, but of the40 homicides in Edmonton this year, it's the onethat happens for no apparent reason that troubles him most.

"They're all sad, don't get me wrong," Clark said Thursday. "But when you have that random attack on a totally innocentman just out for an evening walk, I mean that hits the city hard. It hits all of us hard."

On May 27, GaryYemane, a 63-year-old nurse of more than 30 years, was walking just blocksfromhome on OzernaRoadwhen he was shot a number of times. When police arrived, he was on the sidewalk alreadydead.

Thefile remainsunsolved.

Yemane is one of four apparent random killingsin Edmonton last year. Only two have charges pending.

• North Edmonton shooting victim worked to stop youth violence

But to nobody's surprise, the single most common factor inthe city's homicides isdrugs, Clark said.

"Of the 40, I can attribute 19 to drugs, almost half to some type ofdrug useor that type of lifestyle so the oldadage stay away from the drugs, probably going to be a good chance you're not going to be involved.

"Violent crime in itself revolves around that drug world."

Many victims knew their killer

Of the 20 homicidessolved thisyear, the victim knew his or her assailantin 13 cases.

In many cases the police knew the assailant as well.

This year 26 people have been charged in relation to the solvedhomicides, said Staff Sgt. ColinDerksen."Of the 26 people that were charged 16 were known to police," he said.

Currently there are three files under reviewby the Crown and Clark isconfident the number of solved homicides will soon reach 23.

Of the remaining unsolved homicidesthis year, police have a suspect in mind for 80 per cent.

"Most of them, we know who did it," said Clark. "But we don't have the evidence to charge. Sometimes thatevidence comes up months later, sometimes it comes up because somebody has a story to tell, somebody gets arrested or new evidence comes to light.

"Going into 2017, we'll solve some of these 2016 homicides there's no doubt, " he added.

Files can change from day to day, sometimes hour to hour depending on breaks that officers receive when people get arrested, Clarksaid.

"Depending on what's going on in their lives, they may provide us with a whole pile of new information. Boom. That file that is not hot and heavy, the next day they're working on it again. Things like that happen all the time."

There were 30 homicidesin Edmonton in 2015.

Murder by numbers

• Ofthe 40 homicides, 33 victims were male, sevenfemale
• Two files involved domestic violence and both ended incharges
• A weapon was used in 32 homicides, 16 with guns, 11 with knives
• Four deaths involvedhome invasions, threewere over drugs, one was wrongly targeted house