A run-in with stray bullets has shattered the tranquility of a Red Deer neighbourhood.
“I hope it was an accident,” said Lanterman Close resident Candice Blum, whose home was one of at least two that were hit on Saturday at about 1:30 p.m.
Her husband, Darcy, had been at home with their two sons, aged four and six, when they heard the sound of glass shattering.
Thinking the fishbowl had broken, they went downstairs to the living room, where they discovered a hole in the upper right corner of the livingroom window, said Blum.
They thought a ball had come through the window at first. Then they saw the rest of the damage.
On the far side of the room, about half a metre from the floor, was the small, rectangular hole where a bullet had punched into the wall.
The bullet appears to have been fired from the open fields lying east of the neighbourhood. Speaking with neighbours later in the day, Blum learned that one woman had heard popping noises while walking her dog and that a bullet had whizzed past a man who had gone out to his deck for a smoke.
It took the police more than 20 minutes to come and investigate and, so far, they haven’t provided much hope that a suspect will be found, said Blum.
Investigators told her that getting the slug out of the wall would cause extensive damage, so they don’t want to go after it until they have a gun to match with it.
But they didn’t offer much hope that a suspect or guns could be tracked down, she said.
While the window and walls will be repaired, and her husband are left with a $1,000 bill for the deductible on their insurance and concerns that someone out there has been firing guns without being aware of how far the bullets have flown.
She said she hopes that the person or people who was doing the shooting can be made aware of the damage and fear that has been caused, along with the potential for injury to people and pets.
It’s shear chance that there was no one in the living room when the bullet blasted through, said Blum.
Lancaster is a relatively young neighborhood with a large number of small children running around, she said.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com