Mon, July 19, 2004
Deadly wedding mayhem
Shots ring out at reception
By AJAY BHARDWAJ, Sun Media
EDMONTON -- Wedding bliss turned to horror at a Chinatown wedding reception when assailants opened fire on the crowd and attacked with knives, killing one and leaving three clinging to life. THE BLOODY MAYHEM--- in which one witness said the groom was stabbed in the neck -- left three victims with non-life-threatening wounds after a brawl broke out just before midnight Saturday on the third floor of a restaurant at the reception attended by hundreds.
"Several shots were fired," said Edmonton police spokesman Andy Weiler, adding a half-dozen people were rushed to hospital.
No one from a separate wedding reception in a second-floor banquet room at the restaurant was hurt in the ordeal, but those who remained to clean up after that event added to the confusion as screams and shots rang out.
Police secured the scene before emergency crews moved in.
"It was organized chaos," said EMS operations Supt. Ken Dack.
"The scene was spread out over two floors. There were a number of injured people. Four critically injured people were lying next to each other."
All sustained gunshot and stabbing-type injuries, he added.
Police taped off the restaurant's parking lot as forensic teams searched the dining hall. SUVs decorated for the wedding sat behind yellow police tape. Budweiser beer cans remained on the edge of the second-floor balcony.
PEOPLE 'BLEEDING'
One man, who turned up yesterday afternoon to collect his car, had been at the second-floor celebration and went upstairs when the disturbance broke out.
"I seen people on the ground bleeding," he said. "The guy getting married got stabbed (in the neck)."
Amanda Nguyen was at her niece's wedding on the second floor when she heard the gunshots and screaming.
"I heard all the noise and we ran into the changing room and we stayed in there and kept all the kids in there," she said. "We heard gunfighting and screaming and yelling.
"They were fighting on the third floor and they were down the stairs."
Some 350 guests were at the second-floor marriage celebration.
"I was going to leave and there was pushing and shoving and I thought I'd better get the hell out of here," said a man, 20, who didn't want to be identified. "I went downstairs and I was going for the back door and I heard gunshots. I thought I should get back in the building and stay there."
He said he heard 10 gunshots.
"After the shots, it got all quiet. It was kind of scary. Sirens came on," the man said.
Brian Giffin, who works for a community newspaper in the Edmonton area, raced to the scene when heard the gunfire.
"I thought something was happening in the neighbourhood. Then the police cars started coming out of the woodwork.
"There were a lot of bodies coming out. People were screaming up on the top veranda. There were people running around on the top level. It was pretty scary."
VICTIMS IN OR
Homicide cops spent yesterday at the scene interviewing witnesses. It was Edmonton's 14th murder of the year.
At one of the city's hospitals yesterday, the family of some of the victims were anxiously waiting news in the intensive care waiting room while their loved ones underwent surgery. The families were too distraught to talk to media.
Deadly wedding mayhem
Shots ring out at reception
By AJAY BHARDWAJ, Sun Media
EDMONTON -- Wedding bliss turned to horror at a Chinatown wedding reception when assailants opened fire on the crowd and attacked with knives, killing one and leaving three clinging to life. THE BLOODY MAYHEM--- in which one witness said the groom was stabbed in the neck -- left three victims with non-life-threatening wounds after a brawl broke out just before midnight Saturday on the third floor of a restaurant at the reception attended by hundreds.
"Several shots were fired," said Edmonton police spokesman Andy Weiler, adding a half-dozen people were rushed to hospital.
No one from a separate wedding reception in a second-floor banquet room at the restaurant was hurt in the ordeal, but those who remained to clean up after that event added to the confusion as screams and shots rang out.
Police secured the scene before emergency crews moved in.
"It was organized chaos," said EMS operations Supt. Ken Dack.
"The scene was spread out over two floors. There were a number of injured people. Four critically injured people were lying next to each other."
All sustained gunshot and stabbing-type injuries, he added.
Police taped off the restaurant's parking lot as forensic teams searched the dining hall. SUVs decorated for the wedding sat behind yellow police tape. Budweiser beer cans remained on the edge of the second-floor balcony.
PEOPLE 'BLEEDING'
One man, who turned up yesterday afternoon to collect his car, had been at the second-floor celebration and went upstairs when the disturbance broke out.
"I seen people on the ground bleeding," he said. "The guy getting married got stabbed (in the neck)."
Amanda Nguyen was at her niece's wedding on the second floor when she heard the gunshots and screaming.
"I heard all the noise and we ran into the changing room and we stayed in there and kept all the kids in there," she said. "We heard gunfighting and screaming and yelling.
"They were fighting on the third floor and they were down the stairs."
Some 350 guests were at the second-floor marriage celebration.
"I was going to leave and there was pushing and shoving and I thought I'd better get the hell out of here," said a man, 20, who didn't want to be identified. "I went downstairs and I was going for the back door and I heard gunshots. I thought I should get back in the building and stay there."
He said he heard 10 gunshots.
"After the shots, it got all quiet. It was kind of scary. Sirens came on," the man said.
Brian Giffin, who works for a community newspaper in the Edmonton area, raced to the scene when heard the gunfire.
"I thought something was happening in the neighbourhood. Then the police cars started coming out of the woodwork.
"There were a lot of bodies coming out. People were screaming up on the top veranda. There were people running around on the top level. It was pretty scary."
VICTIMS IN OR
Homicide cops spent yesterday at the scene interviewing witnesses. It was Edmonton's 14th murder of the year.
At one of the city's hospitals yesterday, the family of some of the victims were anxiously waiting news in the intensive care waiting room while their loved ones underwent surgery. The families were too distraught to talk to media.
