Regina seeing highest murder rate in decades

Regina has recorded more murders so far in 2021 than at any other time in the last few decades.

The month of October saw three murders in the span of one week alone.

It is a gruesome statistic Regina’s police chief is well aware of. Speaking to John Gormley, Evan Bray admits it is a lot for investigators to deal with and does impact the police service as a whole.

“They are some of the most complex investigations that we do and they need intensive resources right off the start,” Bray said. “That’s why they have those shows (on TV). They talk about the first 48 hours of an investigation being the most crucial so you really try and frontload those resources. And those investigations can go on for months, even years, depending on the complexity of the investigation and the work that needs to go into them.

“We have a section in our police service dedicated to homicides. It’s 10 investigators, so when you have a large number (of murders) in a short period of time, we end up pulling resources from all through the department and so it does result in other work not getting done so we can do these quality investigations.”

Bray said there isn’t an easy answer as to why so many murders have happened in Regina in this particular year. The root causes are complex and numerous. But there is one issue that stands out above all others.

“Firearms continue to be a problem in our community,” he said. “A fight that results in the use of a firearm has different results and consequences than a fight that is a fistfight outside of a bar. When you have someone pull out a firearm and squeeze the trigger, oftentimes that will result in a charge of, at the very least, attempted murder if someone doesn’t lose their life, but many times the consequences are very serious.

“Digging into this firearms problem and kind of peeling it back a little bit further, we know that drugs are at the root of many of our problems. In fact, most of our serious problems I’ll say deal with addictions — not just drugs but addictions in general. So that combination between addictions, the drug world, in some cases domestic violence, domestic conflict and those relationships between family members that are not good (and) that are toxic can result in a homicide.”

While firearms stand out, Bray added the police have to see the problem as a multi-layered issue that interlinks with other crime and the root cause of it all is often addictions. That issue is neither something that is easy to tackle nor quickly fixed.

“We do a ton of work in the drug world trying to limit the supply of drugs coming into a community, but we know that addictions are through the roof right now in our city. That continues to play a part,” Bray said.

“Some of these long-term, what I will call, historical trauma (and) family challenges that happen, those aren’t something that police are going to step in and fix. Oftentimes, you throw in alcohol or drugs into the mix of an existing problem and it only makes it worse and that’s what results in a fight breaking out and someone deciding that they’re going to end it with a firearm.”

However a murder happens, Bray wants everyone to acknowledge the impact it has on the individuals and the wider community.

“It is easy to throw out a number — 13, it is a big number for our city,” he said. “But we can’t ever lose sight of the fact these are devastating things that are happening in our community.

“They are tearing apart families, not just the loved ones who have lost a loved one but the person who causes that to happen, the person that is responsible for that crime. Their life and their family’s life are torn apart as well. They are going away to jail for a long period of time and it causes all kinds of complex conflict in the community that often takes years if ever to be resolved and be restored.”

Questioned about where the drugs are coming from, Bray admitted it wasn’t a local problem.

“They are coming in from out of town. It is not our local gangs that are manufacturing the drugs that are being brought into our community,” he said. “So that high-level enforcement has to happen with other police jurisdictions — not just in the province but the RCMP, Edmonton, Winnipeg, you name it.

“I think there is an organized piece to the drug world and what we are dealing with but I wouldn’t say it is necessarily our local gangs that are completely responsible for the importation of these drugs.”

Police continue to investigate each murder, even though charges have been laid in only some of the 13. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 306-777-6500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.