EDMONTON (CP) - Police knew it. Social workers knew it. Friends knew it. Even three-year-old Alex Fekete knew his father planned to kill his mom - because his dad told him so. Josif Fekete, enraged over the prospect of losing access to his son, had been making murder threats for a year.

On Dec. 28, 2003, at an apartment building in his central Alberta home town of Red Deer, Fekete made good on those threats. He killed his estranged wife, Blagica, and their young son before turning his gun on himself.

Judge David Plosz directed 15 recommendations to police who handle domestic violence complaints. Every officer in the province should get special training in handling domestic violence complaints, he said, and should act promptly on serious complaints.

In the Fekete case, the couple were embroiled in a bitter custody dispute, and both complained repeatedly to the busy Red Deer city detachment of the RCMP.

But while Josif Fekete complained about minor infractions such as his wife allowing their son to ride in a taxi without a car seat, her complaints were much more ominous. She told RCMP on at least seven different occasions that her husband had threatened to kill her.

Police eventually received similar information from a close friend, a women's shelter worker and a case worker with Alberta Child and Family Services.

"Police officers should not treat chronic complaints made by a recipient of domestic violence, such as those made by Blagica Fekete regarding death threats, as a nuisance and therefore unworthy of belief and thus not conducting further investigation, which could result in arrest and laying of charges," said Plosz.

On several occasions, Blagica Fekete told police her husband had three unregistered guns in his home. But even as the threats intensified, officers didn't get a search warrant for the guns or apply for a firearms prohibition order.

One officer told the inquiry that applying for a search warrant is a "massive undertaking" because of strict evidentiary requirements under the law. After the shootings, police found Josif Fekete's two other guns in a shed at the home of his girlfriend's parents.

The inquiry revealed that the couple dealt with many different officers at the Red Deer detachment, who didn't properly communicate with each other on the file or with outside agencies such as women's shelters. On one occasion when Blagica Fekete reported a death threat, a rookie officer spoke to her on the phone but made no notes, took no written statement and started no investigation.

Cpl. Wayne Oakes, who speaks for the RCMP in Alberta, said the force has already implemented most, if not all, of Plosz's recommendations after a wide-sweeping management review at the Red Deer detachment.

He said the Alberta force views domestic violence as the No. 1 issue and is working to improve the quality of investigations, the training and supervision of officers and the communications around such files.

"There's a lot of dynamics to family violence that oftentimes even your best effort put forward does not result in the consequences, the outcomes, that one may have in other cases or that one would like to see," said Oakes.

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