Suspect in custody in relation to early morning downtown attacks

Around 4 p.m.., today, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021, one man was taken into custody in relation to the attacks from early this morning.  

Shortly after 3:15 a.m., a man called for help from the 4 Street CTrain Station, stating that he had been slashed by a machete.

About half an hour later, a male victim was found unconscious in a bus shelter on 6 Avenue and 1 Street S.W.

Both these victims have undergone surgery and remain in hospital.

Close to 4 a.m., another male victim was found in the 1000 block of 6 Avenue S.W., stating he was knocked unconscious and woke up a short time later. This victim had minor injuries and did not require transport to hospital.

We have since identified that a fourth victim was located at around the same time as the third victim, near the Peace Bridge with injuries to his hand. He was taken to hospital and has since been released.

We continue to believe these attacks were random and have not identified a clear motive. There is no common theme among the victims that investigators have zeroed in on at this time.

We want to acknowledge that this morning was a dynamic situation and we were dealing with multiple scenes related to this incident. In a 24-hour period we were called to over 800 urgent calls throughout the city including the violent attacks downtown and were experiencing a resource intensive period. 

We want to affirm that public safety is paramount and as this dynamic situation unfolded today, we continually prioritized the safety of our citizens with the deployment of resources to locate the offender.

After the initial series of incidents, there were no additional indicators that further attacks were occurring, and it is believed the suspect fled. Twenty-one patrol units, HAWC, K9, our General Investigative Unit and surveillance, along with our partners were all working to locate the suspect.

There are legitimate questions about not releasing further details on the suspect. This was held back in an attempt for our officers from across the city to make headway and follow up on investigative leads and collect and protect evidence at multiple crime scenes across several downtown blocks.

Thank you to our partners at EMS, Calgary Transit, Bylaw, CFD, as well as many other City units that assisted.

Our thoughts are with the victims and we wish for their recovery.