Tot shot in drive-by

By Ryan Smith
Alberta Metro

EDMONTON, Alberta — A 23-month-old baby girl was wounded in a drive-by shooting last night on the Samson First Nation, south of Edmonton.

A single bullet was fired from a car on the street into the residence. Asia Saddleback, 23 months old, was hit in the torso.

Doctors at Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital performed surgery on Saddleback but were unable to remove the bullet. A hospital spokeswoman said the toddler remains in critical but stable condition.

No charges have been laid, but Hobbema RCMP are holding and questioning two men, aged 18 and 19 years old.

Cpl. Darrel Bruno of the Hobbema RCMP said the shooting was the latest in a rash of “firearm related” complaints that his unit has responded to in the past three weeks.

“We’ve responded to 12 firearm incidents in the past little while, and we believe a lot of it is retaliation between the different gangs we have out here, but in this particular incident, we haven’t been able to establish that it was gang related,” he said.