'Long road' to recovery for Edmonton man shot inside Pizza Hut, sister says
Rich Albert was leaning against the counter of the Pizza Hut where he worked when a stranger walked through the doors and shot him in the head.
The gunman, his face masked underneath a black hood, opened the door to the business around 12:30 a.m. on March 12. He pointed a rifle at Albert's face and pulled the trigger.
The bullet went into Albert's skull, just above his left eyebrow.
Seconds after the gunman arrived, he walked out, leaving Albert unconscious on the floor.
Albert, 55, suffered a traumatic brain injury and lost his left eye. First treated at the University of Alberta Hospital, he has since been moved to an Edmonton rehabilitation facility.
"It is completely senseless," Albert's sister, Leslie Albert, said in an interview with CBC from her home in Regina.
"It's an act of violence that was completely random and my brother just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The same person who shot Albert is believed to be responsible for the deaths of two Edmonton police officers who were ambushed four days later at an apartment complex near the Pizza Hut.
On March 16, Const. Travis Jordan and Const. Brett Ryan were responding to a family dispute when a 16-year-old youth opened fire. He shot both officers multiple times, then shot and injured his mother before killing himself with the gun. His mother remains in hospital.
Ballistics evidence links the two crime scenes. Police say a bullet casing from the March 12 shooting has been forensically matched to the firearm recovered from the scene of the police shooting.
Detectives are working to confirm the link. Investigators are also tracing the origins of the firearm to determine how it came to be in the teen's possession.
Albert was partway through his shift at the Pizza Hut To Go near 133rd Street and 114th Avenue when the gunman opened fire.
He was taken to hospital in critical condition. He remained in intensive care for several days, under sedation and breathing through a tube.
Now at a rehabilitation facility, he can walk and talk but is still in pain, his sister said. He is struggling with generalized muscle weakness and having difficulty speaking, she said.
"I recognize him as the brother that I know and love," Leslie said. "The change I see is just the words and the phrases and the frustration that I see when he can't express the words he can think of."
She said it's not clear what the brain injury will mean for her brother's future. "We don't what kind of abilities he has lost or he will maintain," she said.
She remains hopeful he will make a full recovery — something she feared was impossible when she got the call about the shooting. She was in "total and complete shock," she said.
"A hundred things go through your mind," she recalled. "Is he going to live? is he going to die? And If he does live, how is he going to be? You know, it's such mixed emotions."
Albert's wife, Norma, has been his "rock" and has been at his bedside every day, his sister said.
Albert had worked at the Pizza Hut for about six months, doing deliveries when he wasn't at his day job. He enjoyed the work, his sister said.
He had worked as a delivery driver on and off for years after growing up in Regina. He liked interacting with customers, she said.
Leslie, who has visited her brother in hospital, said his injuries have taken a toll on the family but they have been comforted by an outpouring of community support.
As of Wednesday, more than $24,000 had been raised to help cover the costs of Albert's medical needs.
She said her brother is aware of the police shootings but hasn't spoken to her about what happened to him or to the officers.
She said it will take time for his physical and psychological wounds to heal. There is no timeline for when he will be well enough to return home.
"It is going to be a long road," she said. "But I hear his voice and I know that he's still Rich."
