A 20-year-old woman was killed Saturday night in the latest shooting in Hobbema, a community about 100 kilometres south of Edmonton, which is home to four First Nations groups.
Delena Lefthand, who also used the name Delena Dixon, was likely an unintended victim of the continuing gang violence in the community, RCMP said.
The shooting occurred just after midnight when someone fired a bullet through the wall of a home on the Samson townsite where Powderface, her one-year-old baby, and a group of other girls were gathered inside.
One of the girls, Tessa Thome, 12, said she looked out the window and saw a group of boys in the bushes.
"I went running into the closet, all the girls were by the bed and I was just staring at Delena. And then I just saw her get shot by the cheek. And then I just saw lots of blood."
No one else was injured in the shooting.
Delena's mother, Verna Dee Applegarth, was out for the night.
"When we pulled in I seen that yellow tape. I said to myself 'Oh no, what happened now.' One of these cops told me that my daughter got shot," Applegarth said.
While the shooting appears gang related, the young woman killed did not have gang connections, RCMP said. But they said others in the house did have gang ties, noting it was the scene of a shooting the previous night resulting in minor injuries to a man.
The shooting comes weeks after the start a four-month gun amnesty organized by police the community and provincial officials in the hopes of reducing the gang violence plaguing the community.
There are 13 gangs active in Hobbema, a community of 12,000, RCMP say.
"We have to continue to work with our communities and address these problems head on," said RCMP Cpl. Darrel Bruno.
Overall crime in the area is down, he said, although murders are up from two last year to five this year.
The latest shooting could lead to more violence, Bruno said, because shootings like the one this weekend often lead to retaliation.
The gun amnesty was announced in response to the shooting three months ago of two-year-old Asia Saddleback. A bullet fired through her grandfather's home on the Samson Cree First nation stuck her as she was eating Sunday dinner on April 13.
There have also been two other recent killings in the area.
On Aug. 2, the body of Dale Dechamps, 21, was found in a back alley on the Samson townsite. Billy Buffalo, 16, was killed in what police believe was a gang-related shooting on July 27.