Four men were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds after a shooting at a Muslim cemetery outside of Calgary on Friday, though police were quick to say it did not appear the victims were targeted because of their religion.
“We do not believe it’s a hate crime at this time,” said Cpl. Hal Turnbull, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Alberta, sayin that officers were looking at various other possibilities, including the possibility it could be gang-related.
Zouheir Osman, director for the cemetery about a kilometre east of Cochrane, where Friday’s shooting occurred, said a service for a 21-year-old man had just wrapped up and some guests had already left prior to the incident.
He said he’d also left by about 3:15 or 3:20 p.m., but he turned around when a neighbour called to tell him something had happened.
“You don’t know what to do,” Osman said.
“You don’t know what to think.”
Local media reported that there was a funeral earlier in the day at the cemetery, which serves Calgary’s Muslim population, and a group had stayed on site after the service. That is when the shooting is believed to have occurred.
Source: World Bulletin