Lethbridge interim police chief and mayor address serious recent crimes

A third attempted child abduction in west Lethbridge. More details here.
A man was kidnapped at knife-point and was made to withdraw cash from an ATM, go to the Supervised Consumption Site, drive to the Blood Reserve, and was chased by the suspect as the victim and a passerby were driving back into town. More details here.
A shooting in west Lethbridge. More details here.

Over the course of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, police also responded to several other major incidents.

The police service hopes to put out a more detailed media release shortly, but for now, Interim Police Chief Scott Woods was limited in what he was able to say about these cases.

He says there were three reports of carjackings where machetes were used.

One was one the south side Tuesday night, one on the north side Wednesday morning, and one that started in north Lethbridge and moved out of the city. Police are still working to determine if any of these are connected.

Emmanuel Christian School was briefly placed on lockdown Wednesday morning.

“We were dealing with an incident where we’ve got a pretty violent and aggressive act towards somebody with a weapon who was on the move in an area within town. We’re not sure exactly where they’re going, but again, depending on where they end up, we want to make sure we’re taking the precautions necessary.”

It was reported to LPS that someone brought a firearm into the downtown Lethbridge Public Library Branch Tuesday night. Upon further investigation, Woods said that turned out to not be the case.

As far as the recent cases of attempted child abductions, Woods was not able to say much about those as they are very complicated matters and require serious investigations.

What Is Being Done About This?

Both Woods and Spearman talked about the actions being taken by the police service and the city to tackle the surge of serious crimes.

First, Woods said he does not believe that this is an “epidemic”. Rather, he claims it mostly comes down to a few repeat offenders that he hopes to have “some closure with very soon.”

“I have the utmost confidence in the officers in this police service and our investigative teams and the officers that respond to these situations. I think we have things in hand, although it may not seem like it currently to some due to a lack of details, but we are working and making a lot of progress on these investigations.”

LPS have been in many meetings in recent weeks to talk about developing additional strategies, redeploying resources, and “aggressively attacking these behaviours”.

On the government side of things, Spearman says they have already done a lot of work to bolster police resources through the introductions of the Community Peace Officers and The Watch.

He adds that there have been plenty of discussions about potentially allocating additional resources, but the biggest thing to possibly come out of the city in the near future is the implementation of an illicit drug use task force.

Spearman admits that these is not much else they can do on the local government side, but they are advocating the provincial government for more funding and programming.

This includes getting a Safe Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) unit in Lethbridge, tougher laws, and getting a dedicated crown prosecutor in Lethbridge to ensure violent and drug crimes can be prosecuted efficiently.

What Can You Do?

Woods made it very clear that he does not want people to be taking matters into their own hands or becoming self-appointed vigilantes.

“Don’t put your family or yourself at risk. As we’ve seen the trend fairly recently, a lot of these offenders are armed with knives and other types of weapons coupled with some pretty irrational and aggressive behaviour. Don’t put yourself or anybody in danger. We’re trained to do that. Call us – don’t confront them, and we’ll get there are quickly as we can.”

The Interim Police Chief was asked about the kidnapping at knifepoint. In this instance, the man was sitting in his car in a parking lot when the suspect allegedly approached him with a machete.

If you are going out to your car late at night, Woods urges people to first check their surroundings before getting into the vehicle, staying in well-lit areas if possible, and once you are inside your vehicle to immediately lock your doors.

“If something happens that takes you off guard like that, obviously your safety is the number one priority and you need to do what you need to do to get through that situation. My advice would be to cooperate as best as you can and do what you can to make sure you come out of that situation safely.”

When it comes to keeping children safe from attempted child abductions, Spearman said parents need to ensure their children know what to do.

“Encourage kids to travel in groups if they are feeling unsafe back and forth to their homes. Make sure that they have the skills, talk to them all the time about personal safety. It’s a reality these days that kids need to be more aware and that needs to be an ongoing conversation at school and at home.”

Below is a list of phone numbers you can contact depending on your specific needs for crime or safety.

Public Safety Contact Information. (Supplied by City of Lethbridge)

by David Opinko

Lethbridge interim police chief and mayor address serious recent crimes

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