Just over an hour after the rest of Calgary rang in the new year, the police were responding to the city’s first homicide of 2009.
One man is dead and two more were injured after a fight broke out around 1:30 a.m. at a pub near the Whitehorn LRT station in the northeast.
“It has not been that uncommon that we have seen (a homicide) so early in the year,” said Staff Sgt. Patty McCallum of the Calgary Police Service homicide unit.
The fight initially started inside Coyote’s Bar and Grill, then spilled out into the parking lot of the pub. Upon being broken up, three people with varying degrees of injury were discovered.
Two of the three injured were transported to hospital, where a man in his mid-20s died on arrival.
“It was a little bit shocking,” said Lacey Farrish, 24, resident of the area.
Farrish has lived in the area her entire life and has noticed a fair amount of violence near that specific pub.
“I do quite often see cops around here,” said Farrish. “This the first time I have seen anything this serious happen. It’s a bit scary.”
Little was known about the victim or the relationship between the parties involved at press time.
Police continue to investigate and an autopsy on the victim is scheduled for Friday.
The identity of the victim was not yet known.
