Calgary’s Police Chief Mark Neufeld has made an unequivocal call to Calgarians for support to address gun violence in the city, following a shooting that sent an innocent victim to hospital last week.

Speaking near the home in the community of Pineridge on Nov 1, he addressed what has become a brazen and problematic trend in Calgary: targeted shootings, largely related to organized crime, occurring in places where innocent bystanders could and have been hurt.

“I’m here today at the scene of last week’s shooting to appeal to the community, and specifically to those who have information that can help prevent this type of reckless violence in our neighbourhoods,” said Chief Neufeld.

“Part of the reason for coming out to this location was to be able to give you some sense as to actually how nice the neighbourhood is, how residential it is here, how calm it is, how close we are to the school. This isn’t the type of place that you would expect that we would be seeing shootings.”

An innocent person was shot at around 1:15 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27, after a the original target for the shooting was chased and fled into a nearby residence. During the chase, offenders fired shots at the intended target, and struck an innocent bystander who was outside of their home.

That individual is now recovering from their wounds.

“This incident had the potential to end much differently. It had the potential to end much more tragically, and this is a tangible example of how organized crime puts all of us at risk,” said Chief Neufeld.

“We’ve said many times that the majority of the shootings that occur in Calgary are targeted, but this illustrates the risk that is there for all of us. So while it is individuals involved in organized crime and high risk lifestyles that are targeted in situations like this, it’s anybody that’s in close proximity that actually can be impacted, and could be caught in the crossfire.”

To date, there have been 83 shootings in Calgary.

Superintendent Cory Dayley, of the Criminal Operations and Intelligence Division at CPS, said that the investigation into Friday’s shooting continues, and that the investigation is still fairly fluid.

“We are well placed in the investigation, and communicating with the impacted victim that had no relation to the intended target in this case. We’re well placed with the conflicts that are going on in Calgary at this time,” Dayley said.