'He is out to kill': Mother of teen injured in St. Albert drive-by shooting describes incident

The mother of one of three teens injured in a drive-by shooting in St. Albert over the weekend says she's grateful her daughter is alive.

"Just absolute, stomach churning, shock," Erin Donnelly said describing the incident to CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday.

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Donnelly says her daughter Kayte had offered to drive two friends home from a gathering around 12:30 a.m. on Monday when they spotted a white van.

"They presumed that it was their friends who had just left moments before. So as the car was driving by and [her friend] was getting into the car, he gave him the finger," she said.

"The second that he realized it wasn't his friends, he said to Kayte, 'Oh my gosh, that wasn't him.'"

Donnelly said the van followed her daughter's car to Levasseur Road and Grandin Road where both vehicles stopped at a red light.

"She noticed the car pull up right beside her thinking that he was just going to give them a shaky fist, like, 'You kids, don't do that.'"

"He just started shooting at them and directly targeting [her friend] because the bullets, two of them hit him in the back, and one hit the window frame of her car."

A car carrying three teenagers was shot by an unknown person in St. Albert on Sept. 2, 2024. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)

She says Kayte drove off and called for help.

She and her friends were transported to the Stollery Children's Hospital.

Some of Kayte's other friends came to her house to tell her parents what had happened at the same time the police arrived.

"I was just screaming, 'Oh my God!' just frantic, trying to get clothes on from your pyjamas, and just figuring out what you're going to do to get to your child."

A car carrying three teenagers was shot by an unknown person in St. Albert on Sept. 2, 2024. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)

Donnelly says her daughter was left with shotgun pellets in the back of her head and glass in her leg.

She says if her daughter had been driving a newer vehicle, the injuries could have been much worse.

"This is a steel beast, right? These aren't plastic. This is why it didn't go through," she said, pointing out the shotgun marks in her daughter's 1993 Toyota Corolla.

A car carrying three teenagers was shot by an unknown person in St. Albert on Sept. 2, 2024. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)

Donnelly says her daughter described the van as a white minivan with tinted windows.

The driver is described as a white man between 30 and 45, with facial hair, a baseball cap, and smoking a cigarette.

"He is dangerous and he is out to kill," she said. "There's no doubt about that. This was not a warning shot."

She says in addition to their physical injuries, Kayte and her friends have a long road to mentally recovering from the incident.

"Having to tell your daughter who just had a near death experience that 'It just wasn't your time' is stomach churning," she said.

"She's strong and she's tough and we're definitely getting counseling. This is definitely going to be something she has to work through.

"I have no doubt in my mind that as she grows that this has changed her."

Police are looking for area surveillance camera footage from the area between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m. That includes the Grandin, Riel and Heritage Lakes subdivisions.

Anyone with information or footage can call St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700. Anonymous tips can be given to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or at www.p3tips.com.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson