Police probing deadly shooting on westside

By Lethbridge Herald on February 7, 2020.

Lethbridge police work at the scene Friday morning where they say the body of a man was found in an apparent homicide the night before at a home on the city's westside. Herald photo by Ian Martens @IMartensHerald

Tim Kalinowski
Lethbridge Herald
tkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com
The Lethbridge Police Service has confirmed it is likely dealing with its first homicide in over two years.
On Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. police received a call from someone at an acreage on the 200 block of University Avenue West reporting a 34-year-old man had been shot at that location. Upon arrival, officers located the body of the male inside the home.
“A person at the residence did call police and stated somebody had been shot,” Insp. Jason Walper of the LPS Criminal Investigation Division confirmed to reporters during a press briefing on Friday morning. “All we can say at this point is multiple shots were fired inside the residence … There were other people in the residence at the time of the shooting.”
“My understanding is no one else was injured in the home,” he stated.
Walper confirmed they are looking for persons of interest in the case and the victim and the alleged shooter knew each other.
“We do know these two individuals were involved, and they knew each other, and we do believe it was targeted,” he said. “So whether or not the intention was to come there for that purpose? That still needs to be determined by the investigation. But we do know they were known to each other.”
In conjunction with the investigation at the scene of the shooting, Walper confirmed a second residence along Henderson Lake Boulevard was being investigated by police.
“Through our early investigation we did identify a potential link between the residence along Henderson Lake Boulevard,” Walper stated. “Again, it is very early in our investigation and I am really not at liberty to say exactly how we have gotten there. But, certainly, we’re following up on our investigation and what we have determined to date.”
Walper also confirmed the victim was known to police, and officers had responded to occurrences at the University Drive residence in the past. The victim has been sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Calgary to officially determine the cause of death.
Walper said the police had not yet charged anyone with the crime as of Friday morning and had no one in custody at that time, but did not believe there is any further threat to the public arising from this incident.
“I can assure the public that our officers are working diligently, and have been doing so throughout the night and into this morning, to try identify and bring the person or persons responsible to justice,” he said.
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