UPDATE: Charges could be laid tonight in Friday-night homicide

Greg Price

Taber Times

The Town of Taber has experienced its first murder in nearly 15 years.

A
late Friday-night assault left a 47-year-old man dead, as police
encountered the man lying on the floor with injuries to his upper torso.
Police arrested one adult woman, age 28, at the scene, and she remains
in police custody. 

“The call originally came in at 10:50 p.m. last
night to our dispatch centre,” said Insp. Graham Abela of the Taber
Police Service. “The call came in specifically in relation to the fact
there was an injured party who was severely injured and needed police
and medical response. So, we dispatched our officers and transferred the
call to Calgary to make sure an ambulance arrived on scene.”

A
residence in the 5200 block of 48th Avenue in Taber in the town’s
downtown core was the scene, as Abela added the two adults involved had a
history with police, and had been in a relationship but had not been
together for several years. They had lived in Taber for a number of
years.

“We know the victim and the suspect in this case are know to each other.”

The
inspector added attempts to save the man at the scene were not
successful, as the victim was pronounced dead by EMS after police
attempted CPR.

“Our police officers made a priority EMS arrival and
knew the victim required emergent medical care and they attempted to
resuscitate the individual as well as take the suspect into custody. We
had three officers respond initially.”

Abela added the woman at the
scene was taken into custody without incident, but would not go into
further details about how the man died.

“At this time we are unable
to give any information in relation to the injures this person suffered.
An autopsy is schedule for 9:30 a.m. Monday morning and we will have an
officer present at that autopsy, and the medical examiner will make a
determination as to the cause and manner of death.”

More information is expected to be released later this evening, however.

“The
scene is still being examined as we speak now by forensics examiners
with the RCMP out of Calgary and Lethbridge and one of our officers, and
I anticipate charges will be laid this evening,” said Abela, who added a
child was removed from the scene of the police investigation. “There
was a child at the scene who was taken into the care of Children’s
Services — a young child.”

Abela stressed despite the nature of last night’s incident, there is no need for Taberties to panic or fear for their safety.

“The
public is safe, this is a one-off incident, and the person who we
believe committed this offence is in custody. Taber is a safe place —
the last homicide we had was in 1999.”

The inspector added the name
of the deceased will not be released pending the results of the autopsy.
However, next of kin has been notified.