Hitting close to home :(

[Delphinus]

Forgive me for this offtopic post but this is the closest brush with this sort of thing for me yet. I just need to get this off my chest.

Not only is this my favourite restaurant, I had just had lunch there. Any other day of the week this would have been packed with my coworkers as it is one of the best Vietnamese soup around (my personal favourite), and it's right by my office, and the owners are the sweetest people you'll ever meet. I take my kids to this restaurant. I take my cats to the vetrinarian next door.

And now three people are dead, shot while dining inside.

Words cannot express my profound sadness and confusion at this moment in time.

My heart goes out to the owners of the restaurant. They are the sweetest people you could ever meet and they came to Canada presumably trying to find a better life for their family.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

[fishoholic]

Wow, that's disturbing, sorry to hear about it.

[workn2hard2day]

wow, that is too close to home. I think he police always try to make us fell better by saying it was a targeted attack.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Man thats rough...This kind of thing seems to happen way too often (at least here in Vancouver) but never at a place I have been to or would go. That would hit close to home.

I agree that the police like to make it sound better by saying it was a targeted hit. I know this is not always the case because my moms best friends son was gunned down last year in Vancouver and the police called it a hit and gang related...the kid was a student at Interior design school and certainly not a gangster! He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with his friends. His poor mom was devastated of course but to hear her son being called a gang member on top of that was ridiculous. Sorry off topic but I just agree with the above.

[Delphinus]

There's definitely a backstory of some kind here, whether it's gangs or drugs they don't really know though. This is a family run restaurant. I eat there at least once a week for lunch, sometimes twice. To have masked gunmen burst into a restaurant and start shooting doesn't really sound like a random to me. If it truly is random then there's something far scarier going on.

[Lydia]

I'm sorry to hear this, too

The increase in violence is freaking me out, and I'm terrified of being caught in the cross fire. I live in Airdrie, but work downtown, and 2 of my kids go to school in Calgary. One day while picking my son up after school (he's bused to my Mom's in Connaught), there was a home invasion right across the street. We didn't realize it till we went out to my truck and saw all the police cars pulling up, and cops running outside with their guns drawn. We got out of there really fast, let me tell you! And I keep thinking of that poor Brazilian kid who was blinded when he was caught in the cross fire

I'm glad you and your kids weren't having lunch in there yesterday...

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

There's definitely a backstory of some kind here, whether it's gangs or drugs they don't really know though. This is a family run restaurant. I eat there at least once a week for lunch, sometimes twice. To have masked gunmen burst into a restaurant and start shooting doesn't really sound like a random to me. If it truly is random then there's something far scarier going on.

Oh yeah no, I didn't mean this one was random, I just meant I agree that the police do sometimes seem to like to say some public murders were targeted hits to calm people down. Certainly this is not a random act of violence.

[Rbacchiega]

Close to home indeed. When I lived in the SE that was THE place to go for vietnamese food. wow. So Calgary's already at 4 murders and this is January 2nd. Good Start

[OCDP]

Man, that is sad Sorry to hear. Reading the crime reports for Calgary is the most depressing thing.. and then you start to see how much crime really hits close to home.

And yeah, 4 murders by Jan. 2... scary stuff.

[Geofrog]

It is pretty scary. I have never been to the restaurant itself, but I do frequent the strip mall as it is close to home. One of my co-workers, who frequents the restaurant, said the husband was out at the time of the shooting. I can't imagine how tramatic it must have been for the woman who runs the place.