Community concerned after shooting and police standoff in Pleasant Hill

A shooting that prompted an emergency alert in Saskatoon’s Pleasant Hill neighbourhood has left residents feeling unsettled.

On Wednesday morning, a 35-year-old man was shot in that neighbourhood across from Pleasant Hill Community School on Avenue S South, and later died in hospital. Between 9 and 10 a.m., armed police assembled outside a home on Avenue W South.

The emergency alert was cancelled a short time later by RCMP after a man and woman were arrested near the Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation. A third suspect, Shane Thomas, was captured Wednesday afternoon by officers in Saskatoon.

A home on Avenue S South, across from Pleasant Hill Community School, roped off with police tape after a morning shooting on June 14, 2023. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

Julianna, who lives in an apartment beside Pleasant Hill Community School, said she was out walking her dog on Wednesday morning when she saw police activity around the school. She said she received a warning from a family friend the night before, telling her to stay safe.

The friend told Julianna to lock her windows and not answer her door. She said her friend looked scared.

Another family, living just a couple of doors down from the house where the standoff happened on Avenue W, reported hearing a gunshot Tuesday night around 10:30 p.m.

Rose Strelioff said when she went outside to leave her home later in the morning on Wednesday, she noticed her gate had been opened. She normally has a brick and rock in place against it to keep people from pushing it open, but said both of them had been moved.

“I looked and I was like, ‘What is happening here? Somebody must’ve come through the yard,’” Strelioff said.

She said she ran to the back of her house and saw “like a million cops” back there. She said the officers spoke with her about what was happening and instructed her to go back inside the house.

Strelioff said it isn’t the first police interaction or crime she’s witnessed around her home. Two weeks ago, she said two men tried to get into the home while she and her son, Matthew, were inside.

Since she and her family moved into the neighbourhood a year ago, they’ve seen police activity at the house across the street twice.

Strelioff said she “100 per cent” feels a lack of safety in her community.