Youth charged with murder in cycle-by shooting

A 17-year-old Edmonton youth was charged Thursday with first-degree murder after a man was found shot to death in a parked car.

Brandon Dierich, 23, died of multiple gunshot wounds Tuesday night in a residential area at 93rd Street and 68th Avenue,near the Mill Creek Ravine.

At the time, police said the crime was drug-related and suspected the shooter was on a bike and fled toward the ravine. On Wednesday, officers wheeled a bicycle out of the ravine's dense bush and brought out a paper bag with something inside.

On Thursday, police arrested the 17-year-old at a mall. He can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Norma Hartley was coming home with groceries Tuesday night when she saw ayouth on a bike, leaning against a tree. Minutes later, she heard shots.

"My teacher instincts said he just didn't look like he should be hanging around," she said. "[He was] just a kid. The baby face was gone but he didn't have that adult look to him."

The family declined to comment on Dierich's death, buton an online memorial site, his grandfather, Klaus Dierich, wrote: "Brandon tried hard to pull his life together…. We are at an end to have lost him so early."

Friends, who have left a bottle of liquor, flowers and a stuffed toy at the scene of the crime, described the 23-year-old as a daredevil and the life of the party.

Police spokeswoman Karen Carlson saidseveral 17-year-olds have been charged withhomicides in Edmonton in recent months, involved in beatings, stabbings or fights at parties.

"The main difference here is that a firearm was used, one of the very few where a firearm was used."