Calgary boosted security at its light-rail transit stations earlier this month after several stabbings and other violent crimes in recent weeks.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
A man has been taken to hospital in life-threatening condition and two others are in custody after a shooting on a Calgary Transit bus in the city’s downtown.
Officers were called around midday Wednesday for reports of a fight on a city bus parked in front of the Central Library in the East Village neighbourhood.
Police said in a news release that it’s believed the fight between several people who knew each other started when the bus was moving, but that the driver stopped when the shooting occurred. Several bystanders, it added, tried to help the injured man.
“It’s very disconcerting, obviously,” police Chief Mark Neufeld told reporters later in the day. “Someone was bear sprayed, obviously there were shots fired and somebody went to the hospital in life-threatening condition, so that’s very problematic.”
Officers were still at the scene, which is also near city hall, Wednesday afternoon searching for another suspect.
The shooting comes a week after the Alberta government said it would provide money for Calgary and Edmonton to hire 100 more police officers in the next 18 months to tackle violence on their public transit systems.
Calgary also boosted security at its light-rail transit stations earlier this month after several stabbings and other violent crimes in recent weeks.
Neufeld said there has been a lot of concern recently about transit safety.
“Our folks have been out on the transit lines and will continue to be, but that’s why all along I’ve been framing this larger than just transit, larger than just LRT,” he said. “This is going on all over in our city, so at the end of the day, we continue to be committed.
“It’s still a pretty rare event but impactful and certainly at high noon, down around the library and a firearms crime – that’s a major, major issue and so we continue to be committed to that and Calgarians’ safety.”