Mounties have laid murder charges against a 22-year-old in connection with a slaying last week on the Hobbema reserve.
Treston Eurice Buffalo was charged with second-degree murder Saturday. The body of 21-year-old Jeffrey Abram Dennehy was found outside a home on the Samson Townsite before 7 a.m. Thursday.
“(Dennehy) was with a couple friends beforehand, but we haven’t been able to confirm all the stories,” said RCMP Const. Perry Cardinal.
The slaying does not appear to be a random act of violence, Cardinal said, though investigators are confident it was not gang-related.
“That’s not the case,” Cardinal said. “Every community has homicides that aren’t gang-related. We’ve been inundated with that all along.”
Neighbours reported hearing gunshots shortly before Dennehy’s body was discovered, though it’s unclear whether the incidents are connected.
“We have two investigations ongoing at once,” Cardinal said.
Mounties can’t confirm if Dennehy and Buffalo knew one another. The victim was familiar to police, though the accused was not.
The homicide is the first the community of 12,000 has seen in 2009. Dennehy’s death comes six months after the murder of Brian Littlechild, 20, who was shot and dumped from a car on the Samson townsite on Oct. 4.
Buffalo is scheduled to make his first court appearance tomorrow in Wetaskiwin.
