Edmonton mayor demands 2 probes into police actions in lead-up to Chinatown killings

Follow this link to read more about CBC's investigation into Justin Bone's interactions with law enforcement. 

Edmonton's mayor is demanding that Alberta's solicitor general and the city's police commission conduct reviews into actions by police in the days before two men were beaten to death in the Chinatown district.

Amarjeet Sohi's calls for the two reviews came Friday, after a CBC News investigation revealed that Alberta RCMP released an offender into the city, three days before he was arrested in the beating deaths.

The accused, Justin Bone, was dropped off in west Edmonton on May 15 by Parkland RCMP officers who had picked him up in Alberta Beach, even though bail conditions prohibited him from being in Edmonton unsupervised.

Edmonton Police Service officers spoke to Bone the same day he was dropped off in Edmonton by RCMP. The city police officers did not detain Bone because "no criminal offence was observed," EPS said.

Bone is now charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the May 18 killings of Hung Trang, 64, and Ban Phuc Hoang, 61.

Sohi characterized the matter Friday as a failure of the justice system and of policing in Alberta. He said he and his colleagues on city council were devastated to learn of the events.

"I strongly request the solicitor general conduct a comprehensive review to get to the bottom of this situation and help close the gaps in the system to ensure this never happens again," Sohi said in a statement.

"I also strongly request the solicitor general immediately stop the practice of allowing people in correctional facilities to be released into houselessness without a plan of support.

"This situation was not a one-off, or a mistake — we have heard this from community members over and over again. People are being dropped off into our community next to social services without any plan or accountability."

Sohi said he wants the Edmonton Police Commission to conduct "a fulsome investigation into what led to this failure to keep Edmontonians safe and whether it reflects any systemic practices."

Sohi said the details of the case are devastating and demonstrate a "disturbing lack of co-ordination" in the correctional system.

"It also demonstrates that Edmonton is a hub for services for northern and central Alberta, and our system is beyond capacity and unable to handle helping individuals who desperately need it," he said.

"The RCMP released this individual into a system that they knew was already over capacity, and they left him there. That is not right."