By Tyler Marr

One man in critical condition after Midtown shooting

Jun 29, 2018 | 5:00 PM

One man is in critical condition following a Thursday night shooting in the city’s Midtown neighbourhood.

Prince Albert police responded to a call of a reported shooting in an alley of the 200 block of Ninth St. E. around 9:10 p.m. Paramedics also responded and treated a 28-year-old man for a gunshot wound to the face. He was transported to the Victoria Hospital and has since been transferred to Saskatoon for further medical treatment.

A residence in the 900 block of Third Ave. E was surrounded that night and is believed to be related to the incident, according to police. Investigators from the Criminal Investigation Division, including the Forensic Evidence Section are searching the home and area for evidence.

While police said a motive is not yet clear, the shooting is not considered random. No arrests have been made, though suspects have been identified. Police are asking anyone with information to contact them or Crime Stoppers.

Area resident Krista, who did not want to give her last name, told paNOW she was home at the time of the incident. She heard an argument break out shortly after 9 p.m. and become concerned when obvious fear could be heard in one of the voices, though she couldn’t make out what was being said.

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“Then we heard ‘pop-pop’ just as we entered the kitchen to go out the back,” she said. “The man [who was shot] stumbled and collapsed under the front bumper of a car.”

Minutes later, she said officers, some heavily armed, appeared on the scene with their guns drawn and remained in the alley surrounding one of the apartments in the complex most of the night. Closer to 1:30 a.m., she said police began to yell at the occupant in the residence.

“I heard … ‘We know you are in there. Come out with your hands up,’” she said, noting this went on until around 2:45 a.m. when she began to hear more commotion and voices outside. “After that, it got quiet and the police left and they took the police tape down by 3:30 a.m.”

Krista said the incident, alongside other recent crime in the city, has led her to believe many neighbourhoods in Prince Albert “are no longer safe.”

“Gang activity is all over the city. I don’t feel safe,” she said. “It is a major concern. I don’t want to raise my daughter in this neighbourhood.”

Despite feeling panicked at the time, Krista said she has been relatively calm over the past 12 hours. She said some of her neighbours, however, have not fared as well and made note of the number of other young families in the area.

“My neighbours are from Syria, and some families are from the Congo who just moved here four months ago and they have all these children. I am sure they don’t feel safe,” she said. “The gang activity upsets me.”

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr