Dieppe residents worried about recent violent crimes involving firearms

Dieppe's representative on the Codiac Regional Policing Authority is concerned about a recent wave of violent crime in his community.

Robert Arsenault raised the issue at a meeting of the authority Thursday evening.

Arsenault, who has lived in Dieppe his whole life, and served on city council, says three incidents involving firearms over the last couple of months has people worried.

"There's a big question, why does that happen in the frequency of three, in a period of ten weeks? Is that just a fluke or ... it's hard to explain." Arsenault said.

On Sept. 7, police discovered the bodies of Bernard Saulnier, 78,and Rose-Marie Saulnier, 74, in their Amirault Street home. No arrests have been made in connection with their murders.

On Oct.9, police were called to Angie's Show Palace, where they found two men, ages 32 and 25, suffering from gunshot wounds. Olivier Tumba, 25, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not guilty.

And on Nov.9, police arrested a 29-year-old man after a firearm was discharged in a home in the Chartersville Road and Amirault Street area.One man was injured and taken to hospital.

Arsenault says he's had people approach him for the first time since he was on the board to ask what is going on in Dieppe.

He doesn't believe there are any easy answers.

"We could probably put another 25 police officers but would that solve the whole issue? It's hard to say,"Arsenault said.

"We seem to be growing into a bigger city than we used to be and I guess that's kind of inevitable, but let's just hope that this is just a one time thing, that we get this spike in violence and it goes away."

Codiac Regional RCMP Superintendent Tom Critchlow says he understands why people are concerned, and says the police take these violent crimes seriously.

Critchlow says arrests have been made in two of the cases, and police are working on the double homicide of the Saulniers.

He says none of the cases were random acts of violence.

"We have it in hand. We're working hard on it but also I would advise people that they should be concerned as we are, but not concerned that there's people running around that will commit random acts." he said.

Critchlow says police would like to get guns off the streets.

"People have information about who has guns out there. We can't do everything all the time by ourselves, we need the help of the public," Critchlow said.

Critchlow says any call that involves a firearm is a concern for public safety, and the safety of the officers responding.