EDMONTON -- Police say three suspects, including a 13-year-old, face first degree murder charges in connection with a pair of convenience store holdups in the Alberta capital that left two clerks dead.
Laylin Delorme, 24, Colton Steinhauer, 27, and the youth who can't be named were arrested Friday morning.
In addition to the murder charges, all three suspects face charges of robbery with a prohibited restricted firearm and being disguised with intent.
A police news release didn't say when the suspects will appear in court to face the allegations.
Police identified one of the victims on Friday as Karanpal Singh Bhangu, 35, and on Saturday, they identified the second victim as Ricky Massin Cenabre, 41.
Police said the clerks were working alone at two separate stores and didn't fight back when masked robbers walked in and shot them on Friday morning.
Ephraim Holganza, who knew Cenabre through the local Filipino community and recently sold a vehicle to him, said Cenabre was from the island province of Bohol in the Philippines and had been in Canada about four or five years.
He had a common-law wife in that country as well as a teenaged son.
"He was a good person, quiet. During our conversations, he said when he gets his permanent residency, he was going to enlist in the military," Holganza said.
Police chief Rod Knecht called the deaths "a barbaric and gratuitous act of violence" and "evil" when he spoke at a news conference on Friday afternoon.
Police were alerted to trouble when a panic alarm call was made from one of the Mac's stores. Bhangu was found shot in the stomach and was rushed to hospital, but died of his wound.
According to the principal of Progressive Academy where Bhangu's wife, Kiran, worked as a teacher, Bhangu and the couple's six-year-old son had come to Edmonton from India just a few months ago. Kiran had already been in Canada for four years, the principal said.
A 911 call was made from the second Mac's by a delivery man who found a trail of blood leading to a storage room. Cenabre was pronounced dead at the scene.
Holganza and others in Edmonton's Filipino community are seeking donations to help Cenabre's family in the Philippines.
Police say they made the arrests after officers spotted a suspected stolen vehicle near another Mac's. A chase ended when the vehicle crashed into a guardrail.
Police said some cash was stolen in both robberies but investigators said Friday that it would have been small amounts since convenience stores typically put most of their sales in floor safes and armoured cars pick up the bulk each day.
