deng atem bulgak › deadmonton 2007 › deadmonton › edmonton

Deng Atem Bulgak, 22, was shot to death May 15th, 2007.

Bulgak was Edmonton's fourteenth homicide victim of the year.

Case status is open and active. For the latest information visit the The Delwood Double Murder page.

While the bullets were flying behind the family home at 13329 82 Street, Deng Atem Bulgak's younger brothers and sisters were inside the house.

"I can't imagine bullets flying over and young kids seeing their brother's fallen dead. It's quite terrible. It's very terrifying," said Joseph Luri, a friend of Bol's family.

Kuir Bol, 11, said he didn't know anything was wrong until after the shots were fired.

"We heard all the police and my mom crying, so we went through the back door to see, but the police wouldn't let us through. So my sister and I went to look through her back window and then we just saw our brother just lying there with blood all around."

The tragedy in the Delwood neighbourhood was the lead story on newscasts and on the front pages of Edmonton's newspapers.

A family that had sought safe refuge in a new country now had their lives laid open.

The Bulgak family fled civil war in southern Sudan more than 20 years ago. Deng, the eldest son, was born in an Ethiopian refugee camp. In 1992, when Ethiopia became too dangerous, the family fled to Kenya.

They started the process of coming to Canada in 1996. The family of eight arrived in Saskatchewan in 1999 and later moved to Edmonton to find better jobs.

On May 15th, 2007 50-year-old Atem Bulgak, a trained teacher, had just returned home from work to see police surround the duplex he shared with his wife and six children.

And then he saw his eldest child.

"I raised my eyes, and saw a bunch of police officers, and I saw my kid down with blood on his head."

“I saw him just down in the backyard full of blood,” said Bulgak. “He was conscious and we were not even allowed by the police to go near him.”

As police combed through the Bulgak residence and yard, the family stayed overnight at the home of Deng's uncle, Manas Ngongjock.

It was there, the day after the shooting, that media interviewed the grieving father.

"The bullet that we fled back home is the one that took him in Canada,” Atem Bulgak said.

Atem wondered why his son had been killed.

“It's really a shock,” he said. “I don't have an idea. I've never seen him run into trouble or even quarrelling with his brothers and sisters.”

"He was my hope ... to my family as well to community," Atem said.

"I brought them down here for safety. Which has turned out as a tragedy to me."

Atem spoke of his family.

"They saw their brother dying in front being murdered. So is horrible and horrific situation."

Unable to explain his son's senseless death, the family now prayed for justice.

“Something which can really keep me up is if the system can catch up to the murderers who murdered my son,” Bulgak said.

The men talked in the living room while women could be heard wailing in the basement.

Bulgak's cousin, sitting close by, characterised the young man.

“Deng was not a fighter,” said Anyar Ngang, 27.

“He was a very good boy,” said Deng's uncle Manas. “Now we hope the government can look for these criminals. We lost a very young boy, very clever, very intelligent boy and he didn't have any enemies.”

Deng had attended Archbishop O'Leary High School in Edmonton where he played basketball.

He didn't graduate, but was planning to go back to finish and then go to college to study computer science.

Deng was also was a rapper who performed with a band called Jak Moode Squad.

Nicodemus Mabior had just finished a shift at Canada Bread and was going to visit friends at the Bulgak home when he came across the grisly scence, he said.

“I was really very shocked,” said Mabior. “I was sad when I heard.”

"He was a very good boy," agreed Deng's uncle Manas.

"Now we hope the government can look for these criminals."

"We lost a very young boy, very clever, very intelligent boy and he didn't have any enemies."

"The boy is a very good boy. Very clever, very lovely. He participated a lot in our community."

"Deng wasn't a fighter. He was the last person to join the fight," said his cousin, Anyar Ngang.

Atem Bulgak braved more media cameras later in the day and re-told his story.

"When I came back from work I just found him at the back lying in a pool of blood."

"People are praying now for the soul of my late son. I used to have six children so I have five now. The matter has taken his life for nothing.

Finding the gunman responsible was the only thing that will ease his pain, Atem said.

"I have chosen Canada as a peaceful country but it has turned to me now as a tragic place to me whereby I lost my first born."

"What I'm long for it is Canadian government, if they just go forward and round up the suspects who had murdered my son in a cold blood."

"It would relieve me a bit."

The Bulgak family returned home just as police were pulling down the last of the crime scene tape.

Efforts to remove the blood of a lost one did little to relieve the anguish of the family.

It was a cool spring day on May 19th, 2007 when friends and family gathered to honour Deng Atem Bulgak at the Shiloh Baptist Church, 10727 114 Street.

Those gathered also had a message that they want the violence to stop.

Joseph Luri, a family friend spoke outside the church.

"This is a place where we take the opportunity to give out the message to our fellow young men and the adults also to stop being violent if any."

"And also the case where we're grieving like this we should not think of retaliating because that will really not solve the problem."

Mading Angeth, a local journalism student who writes for www.newsudanvision.com, recorded the scene at the service and funeral on the paper's web site. His words are reprinted here as published.

A pastor at a local church told mourners the death of Deng and Juk was "an emergency call" for the Sudanese community to be alert and act, adding that the question was no longer about the dead but who is ending up in the box next time after the burial with the increase of gun-violence, as this double murder comes 6 months after the 18-year-old Thomas Orak Tipo was gunned down at a club in the same city. The pastor said Sudanese parents came with their children to Canada to attend their graduations and not funerals. He said the youths should not act foreign to ways of the Sudanese.

"We've buried Deng's blood, but not his body," said a cousin of Deng.

Ayen Alith, with a faltering voice, said her last words as her first son was about to be placed in the grave:

"Deng, we love you so much; you are a very smart guy. It was your time to be graduating from university. Deng Atem, Deng "Koriom," Deng Adong, you're a child of struggle. I didn't wanted you to die like this. My Deng, I wanted to do your wedding with all my heart as an honour. Deng, we're a strong ancestry and we don't die in vain. Your grandfather died at age 92. The name of Deng has never died in vain: your name is a sweet name! Deng, I don't want you to go to the grave without showing me who killed you."

Ayen Alith tells young people to be courageous and strive for excellence, and not to let themselves be distracted and caught up in the wrong way. She hopes and prays that the violent death of her child be the last.

Relatives made a circle around the area to pray where Deng's blood was cleaned with water pipes:

"We asked you God, Jesus Christ, come to us, I called upon you God, revenge is not ours, we have left it in your hands, we have finished, we the family of Gak"

"This youth of us, we will bury, I stand here as a cousin, the mother of Deng has struggled, she has cared for our lineage children."

"I call upon you God, if there is anything that brought me from Europe, only to meet with this tragic news, it is an insult."

The end of prayers was marked with singing in Dinka. The relatives and friends sang a hymn called "The world is bad, it's full of hatred."

On May 27th, 2007 a memorial was held for Deng Atem Bulgak at a facility near 109th Avenue and 112th Street.

As family and friends gathered, many said not knowing who was responsible for his death left them concerned for their safety.

Lith Akau, Deng's aunt, spoke to CTV Edmonton cameras.

"And now I'm really worried becuase we don't know who shot Deng. And he shot him at home in the middle of his home."

"What is going to be happen for the rest of the children or the kids of the teenagers? We worried, we want to know who killed Deng."

"I'm wishing God will help us just to show us who killed him."

The man who was shot alongside Deng, Juk (Jock) Deng Ring, was buried in Calgary the day before.

On May 31st, 2007 Deng Atem Bulgak's brother, 20-year-old Bul Bulgak, received a twenty month sentence for an assault with a knife.

On July 1st, 2006 at 3:30 a.m. Bul Bulgak and a group of young people were making noise in the parking lot of an apartment-building in north-east Edmonton.

Two caretakers of the building asked the group to keep it quiet. For their trouble, the two were attacked.

A 44-year-old man was stabbed in the face, and a a 56-year-old woman was stabbed in the chest. When she turned and ran, she was knifed in the back. Both their injuries were not serious.

Crown prosecutor Susan Burke asked that Bulgak get two years, citing the young man's long rap sheet. Judge Darlene Wong gave Bulgak twenty months.

deadmonton 2007 - deng atem bulgak