Neighbour recalls night two Edmonton police officers were killed outside her door
A woman who lives across from the apartment where a 16-year-old shot and killed two Edmonton police constables has multiple bullet holes in her door, with a couple piercing her doorframe.
On Monday, Darlene Blyan showed CTV News Edmonton at least six bullet holes in her doorway, remnants from last Thursday's shooting where Constables Brett Ryan and Travis Jordan were killed.
She recalled waking up after midnight to loud noises and the feeling her apartment was shaking.
"I thought my pictures were coming off my walls," Blyan described. "Then I thought someone was kicking my door.
"Then I heard, ‘oh, oh my god, oh my god, about four or five times,’" she added.
The Edmonton Police Service says Ryan and Jordan were dispatched after reports of a domestic dispute. There was no indication a weapon was inside the apartment they responded to, nor that the situation could become violent.
The pair of officers met the 16-year-old's mother outside the Inglewood complex. When Ryan and Jordan were outside the suite, police say they were "immediately incapacitated."
The pair of Edmonton Police Service officers killed on Thursday, March 16, 2023 (Source: EPS).
After what Blyan later learned was a shooting, police officers knocked on her door and instructed her to stay inside her suite.
Thirty minutes later, investigators informed her she would have to leave her home for the next several days as the area was an active crime scene. She was put up in a hotel and just returned home Sunday afternoon.
Blyan, who has lived in the building for three years, said she knew the mother of the teen shooter, who remains in hospital.
According to police, the mother was shot by her son during a struggle for the firearm he used to shoot the pair of officers.
"We would talk in the laundry room and talked about our life," Blyan said. "We would sit on the steps and have a smoke and just talk about everything.
One bouquet of flowers stands outside the doors of the Inglewood apartment complex where last Thursday two police constables were fatally shot (CTV News Edmonton).
"She was easy to talk to," Blyan added. "She's a nice woman."
Since returning, Blyan told CTV News Edmonton she couldn't stop thinking about how she decided to stay in bed that fateful night.
"Good thing I didn't look through the peephole," she said as she pointed to the bullet hole below it.
A regimental funeral and procession for Ryan and Jordan has been scheduled for Monday, March 27.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nahreman Issa
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Average hourly wage in Canada now $34.95: StatCan
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
This iconic Canadian song is turning 50
Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' is marking a major milestone, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Oprah Winfrey: I set an unrealistic standard for dieting
Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Toronto police called to Drake's Bridle Path mansion for another alleged intruder on Thursday
Toronto police say a man who allegedly attempted to access Drake’s Bridle Path property was taken to hospital on Thursday after an altercation with security guards.
Flat tire on a highway? Here's why you shouldn't try to fix it
If you're cruising down a highway and realize you have a flat tire, you may want to think twice before stopping to fix it on the side of the road.
Storm-battered U.S. South is again under threat. A boy swept into a drain fights for his life
Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the U.S. South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street.
Broadcaster and commentator Rex Murphy dead at 77: National Post
The National Post is reporting that Rex Murphy, the pundit and columnist who hosted a national call-in radio show for decades, has died.