For the third time in a week, the Calgary Police Service (CPS) is investigating an early-morning shooting in the city’s northeast, the latest taking place around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, March 4, in Saddletowne.
Thirteen bullet holes riddle a garage door along Saddleridge Drive, while broken glass sits on the front walkway from the shattered front door.
“You feel that you are not safe anymore,” says a neighbour who wished to remain anonymous because he was concerned for his safety. “Sometimes we joke around with my friends who moved to the south, they say ‘Why don’t you move, it’s becoming a hood, a ghetto.’”
While no injuries were reported, officers confirm the shooting is being investigated as having ties to an ongoing extortion series in the area. Calgary police won’t comment on the case as to not compromise the ongoing investigation.
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Since January 2025, there have been 37 extortion attempts in Calgary, 17 of them involving shootings at homes, businesses or vehicles. Of the 21 shootings in Calgary so far this year, nine of them are believed to be related to the extortion series.
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“It’s been happening across Canada, so this isn’t a Calgary situation, it’s a transnational situation,” said Doug King, a criminal justice professor at Mount Royal University.
“We’re seeing it in places like the Lower Mainland, Edmonton and some parts of Ontario.”
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Despite the widespread nature of the issue, King says it may not be a federal policing approach that is needed. He says local police are taking an integrated policing approach to the extortion series, sharing information from their investigations with departments across the country.
“You can’t solve it here in Calgary,” explained King. “You’ll never be able to displace it from Calgary unless it gets displaced across Canada.”
King adds another challenge with the investigations is a hesitancy for victims to come forward, pointing to the need for community policing initiatives to build trust with those being targeted.
“We do know this is a priority for the Calgary Police Service,” said King. “I’ve heard the deputy say that to a room of 250 people, so we know CPS has put a little bit of skin in this so I think we can rely on them to do the community policing initiatives that will start to bridge the communication.”
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