EDMONTON, Alberta, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Law enforcement officials are investigating the deaths of nine people in three separate but linked incidents in and around the western Canadian city of Edmonton.
The first incident took place at 6:52 p.m. local time Monday in southwest Edmonton when police responded to reports of a gunshot at a residence, Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Police found one adult woman dead at the residence.
Knecht said police received a call around 8:30 p.m. the same evening requesting a welfare check at a residence in the north side of the city. A person at the residence was described as suicidal, though when police arrived, they found the residence empty with no signs of suspicious activity.
After receiving more information about the allegedly suicidal subject, police returned to the residence in north Edmonton and found seven people dead, including three adult women, two adult men, and a young boy and girl.
The man police believe to be the suicidal subject at the north Edmonton residence was found dead Tuesday morning of an apparent suicide in a Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan.
None of the identities of the dead was released.
"This is a tragic day for Edmonton," Knecht said at Tuesday's news conference. He said the last mass homicide of this nature in Edmonton happened in the 1950s and included six dead.
Knecht said it was clear the three incidents and nine deaths are related, and police are not actively searching for a suspect.
