The police tape is shown on Tuesday, May 2, 2017. Graeme Roy / The Canadian Press
A Saskatchewan community in northwest Saskatoon is in mourning after a man was shot dead and the suspect was probably found dead hours later.
“You never want something like this to happen in your community,” Langham Mayor Gary Epp said.
“It’s not a dangerous community in any way. It’s a terrible thing.”
The chaos began Friday morning. During the night, some residents living near Park Avenue believed they had heard gunshots. Then, in the morning, the police sirens were crying in the streets of the village of about 1500 people.
At around 7.40am, the RCMP issued a warning of a dangerous person with regard to the shooting. About 90 minutes later, the RCMP confirmed that one person was dead and identified local man Justin Heimbecker as a suspect.
Shortly after noon, the RCMP canceled the alert. According to police, RCMP officers, at a house in Langham that had been set on fire in the early hours of the day, have located the body of a man believed to be Heimbecker, although they are still confirming the identity of the deceased. .
For Epp, waking up to the news of an active shooter brought memories of another tragic and violent incident in the city from 2002, when a young woman was stabbed to death while fleeing from an ex-boyfriend. .
“We’ve been through this before in Langham, years ago,” he said.
Throughout the day, the RCMP and armed members of the Saskatchewan Highway Patrol had blocked roads to Langham, and officers briefly stopped cars as they entered or left the city. Companies off the highway were also closed and closed, many with employees still inside.
But by mid-afternoon, as companies reopened their doors, people in the village were gathering at the Subway sandwiches to regroup, register and find out what happened.
Arriving at his home in British Columbia on Friday morning, Heimbecker’s aunt, Vicky Barton, said the news of the shooting was “simply shocking”.
Barton said he hasn’t seen his nephew in years, but he knows he’s married to wife Josie and is the father of two young children. When she talked to him, Barton said, he was always talking about his family.
“I was listening to the news this morning when I got up, and it so happened that this was in Langham,” Barton said. “And I thought, ‘Well, this is where Justin and Josie live.’
“And then I kept listening to the news, and the next news was that they were looking for Justin, and he probably had a gun.
“I’m just sick of it.”