'Didn't meet the standard': Mace stops Riders practice twice
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The Saskatchewan Roughriders didn't practise up to their standard on Tuesday.
The start to the month of June has been busy for the Saskatoon Police Service.
In the past 11 days, they’ve responded to multiple stabbings, assaults, robberies and even a homicide. This past weekend, Saskatoon officers had to respond to three different stabbings and a hatchet attack.
Dave Haye, the city’s deputy police chief, joined The Evan Bray Show on Tuesday morning to give his thoughts on crime in the city.
“It’s hard to say what’s going on. Things just happened,” Haye said.
“We had the horrific robbery attempt at the Gordie Howe campground. Those things in our community are becoming more and more common, and they’re horrific. I think it’s a sign of our times, a sign of our economic situation, and we need to do something more proactive to deal with it.”
Dave Haye, deputy chief of the Saskatoon Police Service. (Alex Brown/650 CKOM)
According to police, the robbery at the campground saw a 75-year-old woman held at knife point by a robber who forced her to load her own belongings into her truck before taking off with it on Wednesday afternoon. Saskatoon police are still searching for the suspect who was involved in the robbery.
Haye said as far as he knows, the robbery was random, and random attacks can make it harder for police to track down the suspects.
“When those things happen, we really want people to call 911 and report the crime in progress and allow us to come and deal with it,” Haye explained.
Listen to the full interview between Dave Haye and Evan Bray:
Despite all the crime reported by police in the last month, Haye said he still considers Saskatoon a safe city to live in.
“Saskatoon is a very safe city. I’m out every morning for a run and I’m in every community in the city. I’ve had one or two problems myself, but really it’s about being smart and safe, and (knowing) when you have to call the police or remove yourself from an unsafe situation,” Haye said.
“We’re doing our best to respond to these things, but every time we’re asked to do something different, we have to leave something else behind.”
When it comes to homicide cases, Saskatoon is already very close to surpassing last year’s total of 12 – so far this year police have reported 10 homicides in the city.
“They seem to be coming in clumps this year. I don’t know why, and nobody can explain why,” Haye stated.
“But we continue to work on them and out of the 10, six of them we have persons of interest. We are looking for ‘Are they random? Are they known to each other?’ And most of them they are known to each other.”
Haye said some of the suspects are gang members, but none of the homicide cases in the city this year have been directly motivated by gang activity.