April was no ordinary month for the Prince Albert Police Service.
A spike in violent and concerning crimes during the month makes the month a memorable one of 2010.
In the one month alone, the city had a murder, three SWAT calls, the now infamous machete attack on a cab driver and a rash of bear spray assaults.
“If I was tasked with using one word … for the month of April it would be challenging. It was a very, very busy month for the police service,” said Sgt. Kelly McLean.
On the morning of Apr. 8 police tape went up around a home on the 600 block of Sixth Avenue East where officers investigated a homicide. Virgil Pelletier, 35, became the city’s first murder victim of the year.
The same day, SWAT was deployed to an area not far from the home in relation to the Pelletier murder.
“We had information that we went on specifically that dealt with the existence of weapons, the potential for armed and barricaded suspects and we utilized SWAT as a resource,” McLean said.
A few days later three men were arrested on the Mistawasis First Nation and all three are still before the courts, charged with the second degree murder.
The SWAT team was needed two more times in April and on back-to-back days. The more serious of the two situations involved a shooting in a west flat neighborhood. A man was shot during a fight in the area of 12th Avenue and 17th Street West. SWAT set up around a nearby home and arrested two men after a brief stand-off.
The next day, the public was shocked to hear that a Checker Taxi driver had been assaulted by a 14-year-old boy with a machete. At the same time, police were also dealing with a rise in bear spray attacks. At least a dozen assaults were reported during the month and more in the months to follow.
“We’ve reviewed them and I don’t think there is any specifics that we could put a finger on that caused all these things. That’s the nature of policing we never really know when these things are going to strike. During the month of April 2010, it was just like the moon and stars came together,” McLean said.
The number of high profile crimes not only had the attention of police, but the public who began expressing their doubts about how safe the city was.
“It’s terrible,” said one person. Lynn said she was scared.
“Oh there is so much crime. There’s been murder right where my son lives a block away.”
Police Chief Dale McFee condemned the string of serious crimes and took action by rolling out a crime reduction strategy.
“The message is clear if you choose to participate in violence and criminal activity we will be in touch with you. These efforts will continue until our objectives are met,” said McFee, shortly after the initiative was launched.
The strategy combined the resources of Prince Albert police and the RCMP to put the squeeze on those out of custody on judicial releases.
“We have a lot of individuals in our community that are released on judicial releases that we felt needed to have more attention,” McLean said.
McLean said he believes the services acted appropriately to quell concerns from the public about safety.
“We’re as safe as any municipality in the country. We developed a crime reduction unit. We put pressure on these people when we felt that we needed to and we drove these incidents down and got to the core of the problem.”
bbosker@panow.com
Previous stories from 2010's top 10:
Stories of 2010, #10 Relay for Life success
Stories of 2010, #9 Fire Mentor Program cancelled
Stories of 2010, #8 First Nations University nearly closes
Stories of 2010, #7 Emotional rollercoaster around pulp mill
