We don’t have to tell anyone on the West Shore that Tuesday night’s shooting incident in Langford is the second violent crime against a person in less than two weeks in the area.
Residents, business owners and workers have been buzzing about both crimes, both in person and on social media.
It leads us to once again ask, how safe is Langford these days?
The shooting took place in a home near the Langford-Colwood border of Jacklin Road, a short drive from where a man was stabbed Jan. 14 on Station Road – he ultimately died in hospital from his wounds. It’s also a short walk from where a woman was dragged down the Galloping Goose Regional Trail and sexually assaulted in the wee hours of a summer morning last year.
Now, police investigations have told us that both the stabbing and the shooting incidents appear to be non-random acts of violence between people engaged in unsavoury activities; a.k.a. “they were all known to police.”
But does that make people feel any more safe about their surroundings?
Asked what they might tell residents worried about the recent violence, West Shore RCMP assured the public that Langford remains a safe community and that the unrelated nature of the crimes does not lead police to think otherwise.
Logically, that makes sense. Stay away from potentially dangerous situations or people and you’ll have no problem keeping safe. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks logically in the wake of violent crime.
If the victim in Tuesday’s shooting does not survive, it’ll give Langford the lead in crime-related deaths for 2015 with two. That’s two more than any other jurisdiction in Greater Victoria.
No matter what the police say, violence has once again found its way to Langford and people will think a little differently about the area.
That’s not just a feeling, that’s a fact.
