Brawl at CTrain station spurs some city councillors to call for access changes
Warning: This story contains an image that some might find disturbing.
Several members of city council say they'll ask administration to consider closing access to non-paying customers at certain CTrain stations after a brawl at a northeast station last week.
Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said he watched a video of an incident in which a man's jacket caught on fire after another individual appeared to fire a flare gun twice. Chabot called it a very troubling situation.
"Myself, and [Coun. Sonya] Sharpe and [Coun. Jennifer] Wyness have spoken to administration about looking at maybe piloting a closed system at some of the outlying areas, in some of the transit stations," Chabot said.
"I believe if we had a closed system at some of these stations that can actually accommodate it, where you've got limited points of entry, we can eliminate these sort of social behaviours occurring within our transit stations."
Calgary police said they had charged one man and seized a flare gun after the incident, which took place last Thursday at approximately 2:15 p.m.
Police allege four men became involved in a physical altercation, with some brandishing a pipe and a knife while civilians attempted to flee the area.
The man police believe fired the flare gun was arrested, but police are still seeking the three other men.
"This display of violence happened in a busy public area, was extremely reckless, and will not be tolerated," said Acting Staff Sgt. Shelby Stewart, in a release.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the city was still waiting for funding from the provincial government, which announced earlier this year that it was going to give money to cities for improving transit security.
"I really hope we can access some of those funds quickly," she said.
Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott, meanwhile, said he would not support a closed system. He said he believed it wouldn't solve the larger systemic issues that have led people to find themselves in such situations in the first place, and would instead simply just move them to different areas of the city.
Earlier this month, Calgary police said they had conducted an October enforcement blitz that had resulted in 45 arrests and 47 criminal charges.
