COCHRANE, Alta. \u2013 A funeral for a young man being held at a quiet, rural cemetery west of Calgary erupted into chaos on Friday afternoon when gunfire broke out, sending four men to hospital.<\/p>\n
It happened at a Muslim cemetery in the countryside near Cochrane, Alta., but by evening RCMP determined it was not a random attack and was not racially motivated.<\/p>\n
A suspect or suspects were still being sought and the four victims were taken to hospital \u2013 driven there by others at the funeral \u2013 with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n
Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy said he spoke with two people who attended the funeral and they suspect the shooting was gang-related.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt did not seem to be a hate crime,\u201d Soharwardy said. \u201cIt looks like it was a turf war or gang war or some type of revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
RCMP Cpl. Sharon Franks said the victims are all expected to recover and are co-operating with investigators.<\/p>\n
She said police don\u2019t know yet if the crime was gang-related and noted the victims were all of the same race.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not believe that this is random incident,\u201d Franks said. \u201cIt appears that there were friends and family gathering for a funeral at this cemetery when an altercation broke out that ended with a gun fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously they were there to mourn a friend and a family member and this is one of those things that is hard to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The funeral was for a 21-year-old Pakistani man named Hamza Nazir, said Soharwardy, adding he knows the young man\u2019s family but did not know how he died.<\/p>\n
He said many young people from different ethnic groups showed up at the funeral and one group even stayed outside the cemetery fence.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were quite suspicious because they had never seen so many young people attending a funeral,\u201d said Soharwardy. \u201cSo after the burial, they just left.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shooting happened moments later.<\/p>\n
Sgt. Jack Poitras said there was no immediate danger to the public, but at Foothills Hospital in Calgary, where the injured were taken for treatment, armed officers and a tactical team guarded the entrance.<\/p>\n
RCMP cruisers were also still stationed at the cemetery, where manager Zouheir Osman was trying to understand what had taken place.<\/p>\n
He said he had left after the funeral service concluded and was on his way back to Calgary when the shots were fired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a call from one of the neighbours here that there was a shooting,\u201d said Osman. \u201cSo I called back to see if the people who were left behind were OK and they said there was nothing. Then I kept going and heard it on the news and I started getting calls after that and I drove all the way back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osman said he didn\u2019t believe the shooting had anything to do with the man being remembered at the funeral.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has nothing to do with him,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 With files from Chris Purdy and John Cotter in Edmonton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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