The police identified the woman who was killed in a mysterious shooting on a Saskatchewan road last week.
At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, RCMP identified the victim as Tanya Myers, 44, and read a public appeal of his family.
“We are all in a state of shock and disbelief, and the loss of Tanya leaves a giant and open hole in our lives, and the lives of their cats, which wonder where their mother has gone,” the family wrote, noting that Myers rarely left home because he worried about nine cats.
On Friday, Myers and another woman led to Weyburn, Sask., On highway 39 in a Ford Explorer around 8 PM CST when Myers, who was in the passenger seat, was fatally hit by a bullet, according to RCMP.
At the time of the shooting, the two women were approximately three kilometers northwest of Weyburn, near Richardson’s pioneer and the Viterra Grain terminals and elevators, police said.
“For the person or persons responsible, please increase consciousness and assume the responsibility of their actions. Tanya deserves justice and his family deserves answers,” the statement continued.
An inspector of the main crimes unit of the RCMP told journalists at a press conference on Saturday that his investigation indicated that someone shot Ford Explorer, hit the passenger, and the shooting seemed to be random.
On Tuesday, RCMP Supt. Joshua Graham clarified that language.
“It is not necessarily random, although we do not necessarily think that it is directed. It could be,” said Graham. “It could be accidental. It could be perhaps an overpop of someone shooting something, maybe an animal, an objective.”
Tanya Myers was hit by a bullet while she was passenger in a Ford Explorer that led to Weyburn on highway 39 on Friday. Police say that a second vehicle was shot in the tire in the same stretch of road approximately at the same time.
Second vehicle shot
On Saturday, the police received a report from a driver who had also been traveling on highway 39 in a SUV last night. The driver informed having heard “two pops” of what sounded like rocks that hit his windshield, according to RCMP. There were no apparent damage in the SUV windows.
The researchers said the driver noticed a flat tire on Saturday. They did not know if there was any connection with the woman who was shot the night before, but decided to inform it due to the moment, the police said.
The RCMP forensic team examined the SUV tire on Monday and determined that it had been shot.
The researchers also confirmed that the SUV driver was close to the Ford Explorer at the time of the shooting, and finally passed it and continued towards Weyburn after the incident, according to RCMP.
Initially, the driver was not aware of the incident that involved Ford Explorer and did not know the occupants, police said.
The RCMP main crimes unit is asking the public for any security footage that the shooting may have captured. They ask anyone with buildings or houses on highway 39 and the 13th Highway to check any security footage starting Friday night between 7:45 and 8:30 PM CST.
They are also asking anyone in the area during that time to communicate with them.
“Maybe you were hunting or shooting Target, or maybe you were or met someone who was,” said Monday’s press release.
Graham urged the public to remain attentive, saying that the shooting was disturbing if it was “careless, reckless or even intended.”
When asked what would tell the responsible person, Graham said there is a family that suffered a terrible loss and that they deserve to have a closure.
“If that is accidental, intentional, whether or not they knew, at the end of the day we need to account and discover the truth about what happened.”
