Most readers will likely agree with me that I’m concerned about the variety of violent crime going on recently. I don’t remember any time when there have been so many bizarre incidents in so short a period of time.
Convenience store employees Ricky Massin Cenabre and Karanpal Singh Bhangu were murdered Dec. 18 in apparent robberies. The three suspects in these murders, Laylin Delorme, 24, Colton Steinhauer, 27, and a 13 year old, were arrested the same day as the murders. It looks like suspects entered the convenience stores, robbed the places and then murdered the employees in cold blood. So far, no real information about motivation has been released.
The biggest joke is the Alberta Federation of Labour immediately piping up to blame working conditions for the murders, which is absolute horse dung. The murders occurred because somebody pulled a trigger; if there were more employees there, they’d be dead too.
I feel terrible for the families of the victims; they truly are the forgotten people. If there was any real justice in the world, the cowardly shooters would be dead, and the convenience store workers would be alive and happy.
Then there was the insane Christmas day rampage which ended with RCMP shooting and killing a 37 year old lunatic in the Red Deer area. According to RCMP, the suspect in question attacked and raped a 47 year old woman and then seriously assaulted a 20 year old man who was trying to protect the woman. After the assaults, the suspect fled and was later spotted in the Sylvan Lake area. Police pursued him and the suspect stole a piece of construction equipment and generally smashed up the area, including police vehicles. Police shot and killed the suspect west of Red Deer and judging by the suspect’s behaviour, he left police no choice.
I don’t think I have to mention the amount of crime that’s been going on around the Wetaskiwin, Millet and Leduc areas. From young fellows going from house to house trying door knobs and then claiming they’re selling Xmas ornaments to a break and enter epidemic, maybe it’s just my imagination, but it just seems like there is a lot of crime going on. Readers would be interested to know that both I and the reporter Amelia Naismith get all RCMP press releases from all over Alberta, and it seems there is an armed robbery or two every day somewhere and a never-ending stream of grainy, almost-useless security photos of alleged perpetrators.
Firstly, I have some advice for those of you conducting the break and enter campaign. Please stop harming your neighbours. There are jobs out there and you’ll make more than you could ever hope to bank from selling stolen property.
Secondly, for the guys murdering and raping, here is some advice for you:
Mental Health Support Line 1-877-303-2642, Family Violence Info Line 310-1818, Bullying Helpline 1-888-456-2323, Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-387-5437 and Income Support line 1-866-644-5135.
Stu Salkeld is the new editor of The Leduc/Wetaskiwin Pipestone Flyer and writes a regular column for the paper.