the delwood double murder › deadmonton 2007 › deadmonton › edmonton

WARNING

The Delwood Double Murder took place on May 15th, 2007.

Deng Atem Bulgak, 22, and Juk (Jock) Deng Ring, 24, were Edmonton's thirteenth and fourteenth homicide victims of the year.

Case status is open and active.

At about 10:00 p.m. May 15th, 2007 police received several calls reporting shots fired near a home at 13329 82 Street in Edmonton's Delwood neighbourhood.

When officers arrived they found two men dead behind a one-storey duplex at 13329 82 Street.

One man was found in dead sitting in the front seat of a car while the other was found lying in a backyard.

Police said 15 to 20 people, including several children, were in the home at the time of the shooting, with all of the shots being fired near the backyard. It was not known at the time if any of the children witnessed the violence.

Officers spent the late evening and early morning hours interviewing family members and neighbours as emergency vehicles flooded the street with flashing light.

Relatives were seen gathered on the front step of the home, some wailing in anguish and waving their arms.

Friends and other relatives arrived in such numbers police were forced to hold them back from the scene. Most were reportedly from Edmonton's Sudanese community. Officers were seen restraining one person on a boulevard.

Insp. Dan Jones provided what details he could to media.

"It took place outside in the back yard. Unfortunately we have two individuals who have been shot. Both of them appear to be, at this time, in critical condition."

"We don't know if they are going to succumb their injuries or not."

One man was later pronounced dead at an undisclosed hospital while the other was rushed into emergency surgery at the University of Alberta hospital where he was initially listed in grave condition but later died.

Autopsy results released later indicated both men died of gunshot wounds.

Jones said officers were looking for a late '90s silver or metallic-beige regular-cab half-ton pickup truck with two men inside. The truck, which was reported variously as with or without a canopy, had damage to the right-front fender. Witnesses said the pickup sustained the damage as it was driving away from the scene. Jones explained:

"The silver half-ton? They're the ones who fled the scene and they're the ones that we're most interested in tracking down and talking to."

Police weren't sure how many shooters they were looking for and didn't know if they were among the people inside the home before the gunplay took place. No one inside the home was injured.

"We don't know if they were here and something went awry or if they simply showed up and the shooting happened."

"There are a lot of witnesses, small children et cetera, at the house. We're trying to get [them] away from the house up in the North Division and sit them down in a calmer environment to look after them and get their statements."

"It always makes it a lot more chaotic when there are a lot of people involved, especially children and there are a lot of children here. Obviously there's going to be some trauma to those kids so we're trying to get them all into a safe environment and figure it out from there what exactly it is we're dealing with."

While police were hesitant to connect the murders to recent incidents of gang violence, it was confirmed homicide detectives brought in the gang unit to assist in the investigation.

"We don't believe this to be a random act of violence," a police spokesman said later. "Gang activity hasn't been ruled out at this time."

Two guns were found in the alley behind the home but investigators had yet to confirm they were connected to the shooting.

Police secured the area overnight and waited for daylight to continue their investigation.

The day after the shooting, police remained at the Delwood area house documenting evidence.

Traffic and forensics officers concentrated their efforts in the alley behind, examining a Chrysler Sebring where one man's body was found.

The car suffered extensive damage to its front end, the driver side window was completely shattered while the passenger door window had a large hole in it.

The rear window of the car had little glass remaining and a bullet hole was visible in the right rear quarter panel.

Officers scoured the lane where two guns had been found. One of the weapons appeared to have been hastily tossed underneath the rear of a car. Blood was still visible on concrete behind the 82nd Street house.

While authorities first withheld their identities, local media published the names of the city's latest homicide victims.

Dead were 22-year-old Deng Atem Bulgak and his friend, 24-year-old Juk (Jock) Deng Ring. The first man was also identified as Deng Bol in some reports.

Bulgak was born in an Ethiopian refugee camp as his family fled the civil war in Sudan. For more, visit the Deng Atem Bulgak page.

Ring was also a refugee from Sudan. For more, visit the Juk (Jock) Deng Ring page.

Details emerged about where the two men were discovered by police.

Ring was discoved lying in the alley after being shot in the front seat of the Chrysler Sebring that was found parked at an odd angle. Bulgak laid bleeding in the backyard of his home.

Inspector Howie McCann was asked at the scene if the two men were known to police.

"At least one of them were. I can't confirm how they were known at this point."

"Were still doing a lot of other work behind the scenes that you don't see."

However, both the Edmonton Journal and Sun uncovered details of Deng Atem Bulgak's criminal past.

According to court documents, Bulgak was slated to appear in Leduc provincial court on June 28th, 2007 to face charges stemming from a March 12th incident at the Edmonton International Airport.

RCMP alleged Bulgak was carrying a switchblade knife while in possession of cocaine and marijuana.

Bulgak was charged with obstruction of a peace officer on October 18th, 2006. On December 4th he received an absolute discharge in an Edmonton court.

In addition, Bulgak was convicted of robbery in connection with an October 28th, 2003 incident. On November 26th, 2004 he was given a 18-month conditional sentence that was to be served in the community (including nine months house arrest), ordered to pay $180 in restitution and was banned from possessing any weapons for 10 years.

Upstart free street newspaper Metro Edmonton quoted a 40-year-old neighbour who said that one of the victims used to drive up and down the back alley at high speeds, trying to squeal his tires.

“He did that lots, pissing everybody off,” the man said. “Except this time somebody was waiting for him in the driveway and they opened fire.”

The neighbour also said one of the victims had allegedly attempted to lure his 14-year-old daughter into a vehicle as she was making her way home from Londonderry Junior High about two weeks prior to the shooting.

"This neighbourhood has gone to hell and I'm sick of it," the man told the Metro paper. "I'm selling my place and moving us out to the country."

Police told www.newsudanvision.com that witnesses had reported a truck had been parked in the area for about an hour.

The witnesses suggested the murder could have been a set up by people aware of Deng Atem Bulgak's 10:00 p.m. curfew. It was not made clear in the www.newsudanvision.com story at whose discretion the curfew was imposed.

Global Edmonton focused a story on Edmonton's prolific crime rate. At the time of the Delwood double murder, homicide numbers in the city were twice that of the previous year at the time.

Edmonton police Supt. Darryl Da Costa said Edmonton's violent times were the product of a fast-growing city.

"What we're experiencing is some of the results of a large number of people coming into our city and the kind of activity that that attracts."

"We're concerned with the level of violence, for sure."

A police spokesman tried to put the issue in perspective.

"At this time we're looking at 13 and 14 as our most recent victims. That compares with about seven at this time last year."

"Of course it's important not to read too far into that as this year, for the first several months, we were quite behind [2006] so these things do go up and down."

"I heard at least five shots," one person told the Edmonton Journal. "There was one, a pause, and then four more."

Another witness claimed to hear at least a dozen shots fired from two different guns.

The warm spring evening in the medium-density neighbourhood led to many hearing the shots through open windows. People filled the street to observe the goings-on. Several spoke to reporters.

One woman heard one gunshot followed by a loud bang and then several more shots as she sat in her living room.

She waited until police arrived before venturing outside with her children. They saw a Chrysler Sebring slammed up against a wooden pole, she said.

"The driver was shot in the head. When the police were shining the flashlight on his head, you could see everything," she said.

Two doors down, they saw a man staggering in from the alley into the backyard.

"The second man was standing in the yard. He was standing and then he crumpled to the ground. The police were trying to talk to him and they were trying to take his clothes off."

The woman's daughter said she saw the dying man's hand twitch.

The woman also said she has often seen what she thinks are drug deals going on in the alley. Two cars pull up, one person gets out and walks to the other's window. Then both drive away. She added that her van was stolen two weeks before the shooting.

George Ewing demonstrated how he found Bulgak in the yard next to his house.

"He had blood squirting out of his head ... all over his sweater."

"He wasn't talking or anything, he wasn't moving."

Les Gillett was speaking on his phone when he heard "bang, bang, bang, bang."

"I heard the blasts in my ears. I looked outside and it was quiet as a church. I thought it was big firecrackers."

As police cars arrived, he heard the sound of sirens mixed in with that of a woman crying.

"She was really wailing," he said.

The day after the shooting, media returned to the area seeking more eyewitnesses. Gesuele Triplodi said he had seen things getting worse and worse.

"Forty years I've never saw anything like that."

"I mean vandalism, shooting ... whatever. I never saw a shooting here around the neighbourhood."

One neighbour who had had enough was Scot Monninger.

When news teams caught up with the man he was bringing packing boxes into his rented house three doors from the shooting in preparation for a move.

After dropping his wife off for work, Monninger bought packing tape, picked up several boxes and started packing his family's belongings for a move to an empty trailer on the family farm near Onoway.

Monninger's five-year-old son Jacob was in his upstairs bedroom when he heard the first shot fired. His wife was in the bathroom.

"I just told my wife to hit the floor and get in the basement. I didn't even bother going to the window." After grabbing his son he called 911.

The Monningers moved to the city 10 years ago and had lived in the Delwood neighbourhood for about a year.

"I'm not putting my family at this kind of risk. There's going to be retaliation. I know how it works. I'm just smart enough to leave."

"Ain't worth the stress, ain't worth the hassle," said the 29-year-old. "This is the one that settles it."

"We should be out of here by the end of the week," he said, adding his rent jumps in June anyway and that he's had it with this city.

Violence had touched many in Edmonton's small but growing Sudanese community in recent years.

Eighteen-year-old Thomas Tipo Orak was one of three men shot as part of the Red Light Lounge Triple Murder of October 29th, 2006.

Orak, his mother and four siblings came to Canada in 2001 as refugees. Dwayne Anthony Nelson, 22, was charged with three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of assault causing bodily harm.

Six weeks earlier, 27-year-old Nyibol Chuol was reported missing and her stabbed body was found September 16th, 2006 dumped on the north side of Yellowhead Trail between Range Road 222 and 223 east of Edmonton.

As her body had begun to decompose from the chest up, fingerprints from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and clothing were used to help confirm her identity. Charged with second-degree murder and offering an indignity to a body was 41-year-old John Both – Nyibol Chuol's husband.

Chuol and Both had come to Canada in 2003 after spending three years in a Kenyan refugee camp escaping a civil war in southern Sudan. They had been married nine years and lived in the Delwood area ten blocks from Tuesday's crime scene.

On July 17th, 2005 Charles Jacob Wula escaped a police pursuit by running into the North Saskatchewan River near Rundle Park.

The 38-year-old man was fleeing from police because he had breached a court order to keep away from his wife's home after their divorce.

Wula's body was spotted nearly a week later by a youth riding a motocross bike along the river near 195th Avenue and 25th Street.

Sudanese refugees began arriving in Canada in large numbers in 1997. Their country was embroiled in two prolonged civil wars during most of the latter part of the 20th century.

The first civil war ended in 1972 but broke out again in 1983. The second war and famine-related effects resulted in more than 4 million people displaced and, according to rebel estimates, more than 2 million deaths over a period of two decades.

Some 3,000 to 5,000 Sudanese refugees now call Edmonton home, mostly coming from either the Dinka or Neur tribes, two of 300 that are present in Sudan.

Juac Aleu of the Sudanese Dinka Society spoke of the recent losses within their small community.

"We are losing them."

"Why? Who is to be blamed? The parents or the government or the guns that is scattered all over the country?"

"It's very horrible," said William Kon, a leader in the Sudanese community.

"We lost a boy the last time and now we have lost two this time. It's totally bad news."

Mading Angeth, a local journalism student who writes for www.newsudanvision.com, spoke of the impact the two deaths had on his countrymen's community.

"Knowing that they came to Canada to have a peaceful life they don't expect something like this."

Angeth believed more support was needed for newcomers.

"They come from Sudan and they have that culture and then they come here and have another culture. So it's like they're caught between the two worlds and they don't know how to adjust to the life here."

Sabrino Majok, a 35-year-old Sudanese refugee who has lived in Edmonton for six years also spoke to the tragedy.

"These things affect us greatly. Most of us came from war-torn Sudan and the purpose of coming here was security and peace of mind. It shocks us. It reminds people of the horrors back home," he said.

Majok said many Sudanese were told that Canada was one of the safest places to live.

"Then, things like this happen. It leaves us without answers."

Angeth recorded the scene at a Sudanese community meeting held days after the shooting on the www.newsudanvision.com's web site. His words are reprinted here as published.

Daruka Nyandeng, a member of the Sudanese community in Edmonton said if there was no fundamental change in the community, such news were bound to repeat themselves.

"If there is no change in the community, all the kids will go the same way."

"When our children are being advised, you appear like a dog barking to them."

"If a kid stopped going to school and doesn't think about his family, then what else has remained of him?"

Daruka was alluding to the general belief that many Sudanese young people have deserted schools, which she says, distracts them from positive engagement. She believes that the Sudanese community has become a laughing stock for others.

Since the shooting incident which has robbed the Sudanese community of two of its young ones, the community has began charting out the future.

"Sudanese will never be able to find a solution unless they admit there is a problem," said Yol Piom, elder in Sudanese community in Edmonton. "We (parents) have failed our kids and now our kids are failing us," he added.

On May 31st, 2007 Deng Atem Bulgak's brother, 20-year-old Bul Bulgak, received a twenty month sentence for an assault with a knife.

On July 1st, 2006 at 3:30 a.m. Bul Bulgak and a group of young people were making noise in the parking lot of an apartment-building in north-east Edmonton.

Two caretakers of the building asked the group to keep it quiet. For their trouble, the two were attacked.

A 44-year-old man was stabbed in the face, and a a 56-year-old woman was stabbed in the chest. When she turned and ran, she was knifed in the back. Both their injuries were not serious.

Crown prosecutor Susan Burke asked that Bulgak get two years, citing the young man's long rap sheet. Judge Darlene Wong gave Bulgak twenty months.

On June 18th, 2007 the Edmonton Sun, reporting on the murder of Richard Alexander Harris (found stuffed in the trunk of a 2007 Hyundai Elantra parked in a Dickensfield church parking lot six days earlier), reported that the murders of Bulgak and Ring may have a gang connection.

The Sun reported that police had not yet linked the murder of Harris to gang activity.

Staff Sgt. Chris Kluthe of the police homicide section was quoted as saying only four murders in 2007 had been linked to gangs. However, Kluthe would not elaborate.

According to records kept by this site, only the murders of Ola Tinineh Moses and David Wong had been confirmed by police as gang-related.

In the matter of Bulgak and Ring, a gang link had not yet been officially discounted. Kluthe's statement to the Sun seemed to indicate police had now classed the double murder as being gang-related.

Violence continued to plague the Sudanese community after a man was shot at a cultural gathering on June 24th, 2007.

Police reported a Toronto man was shot twice at the Alberta Avenue Community League building at about 3:00 in the morning.

deadmonton 2007 - the delwood double murder