Retired officer says mayor, police need to better address Halifax gun violence

Retired Halifax Regional Police (HRP) Staff Sgt. Jim Hoskins says Halifax has a gun problem and he wants the chief of police and the mayor to do something about it.

“What’s it going to take, another child shot? Well here it is,” said Jim Hoskins, who retired from the Halifax police in 2005 after working more than 35 years in policing.

On Tuesday night, Halifax police responded to a drive-by shooting in the Bayer’s Westwood community in Halifax’s west end.

An 11-year-old girl was struck by a bullet outside a home and she’s recovering in a Halifax hospital, said a family friend.

It's the seventh shooting Halifax police have dealt with this year already.

"You’ll have a whole multitude of shootings, and then that will settle down, and then it will be quiet for a while and then all of a sudden it resurges again,” said Hoskins.

He’s calling for more accountability from police and elected leaders regarding the recent gun violence.

“I don’t hear from the chief of police and I don't hear much from the mayor and council. Council has been asked about this by me personally.”

Halifax police say they don't have any further updates on the shooting Tuesday night. Nor do they have any suspect descriptions to offer at this time.

But police do have more resources they could deploy to deal with gun violence, said HRP Cst. Nicolas Gagnon.

“We have specialized units that continue to act both reactively and proactively,” said Gagnon.

“Additionally, the community can expect to see enforcement as necessary, whether through canvasses following an incident or other intelligence-driven enforcement that we made need to undertake.”

The province’s justice minister says the recent gun violence is concerning but says it's not just a Halifax issue.

“We are seeing a trend right across the country with gun violence and gun trafficking,” said Justice Minister Brad Johns.

He said training exercises with Americam law enforcement agencies including the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms continues as the province works to better deal with gun trafficking across the border and through the port.

“Within the next couple of weeks, I’ll be meeting with a number of police chiefs across the province and it will certainly be a discussion we’re having at that time as well,” said Johns.

Councillor Shawn Cleary says the new police budget has more funding in place to help put more patrol officers back in the community.

“What I’m hoping that does is actually allow community response officers to be back and present in those communities, where people have been asking for them."

Halifax police are appealing to the public in relation to Tuesday’s drive-by shooting and are asking anyone with information to call police or Crime Stoppers.

“Even the slightest amount of information that anyone brings forward can have an impact on an investigation,” said Gagnon.