By CHERYL CHAN & DAN FUMANO
Cops are investigating a Saturday night shooting in Surrey that left one man dead and another in hospital.
Police responded to a report of shots fired shortly after 10:15 p.m. Saturday night in the 14300 block of 90A Avenue, according to a release from the Surrey RCMP. The officers who responded found two men in their late 20s suffering from gun shot wounds, and they were transported to hospital by ambulance. By Sunday morning, one of the men had died.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is investigating the incident, which they called a “targeted attack,” they announced via Twitter Sunday morning.
In a statement issued Sunday afternoon, IHIT spokeswoman Staff Sgt. Jennifer Pound said: “While we believe this to be a targeted shooting, police are working on confirming the motive for this attack and finding who is responsible.”
Police were trying to complete next-of-kin notification before the identity of the deceased was released, the IHIT statement said.
One neighbour said her family heard shots ring out and saw a vehicle speeding away from the house next-door.
“We were terrified of what just happened,” said the woman who did not want her name published.
The two people injured could be seen at the driveway, she said. One of them lived in the house.
“We’ve seen some of them around,” she said, adding the family are nice people and respectful neighbours.
“It’s a really quiet peaceful neighbourhood. For something like that to happen, it’s uncommon,”
Another neighbour Jagjot Atwal wasn’t home when the shooting occurred. He said it was the first such incident in the neighbourhood in the five years he’s lived there.
Surrey has seen a rash of gun violence in 2016, with more than 45 shootings so far this year in the city.
Karen Reid Sidhu, executive director of the Surrey Crime Prevention Society, praised the work of local police, but said the country’s legal system seems to allow violent, dangerous offenders to keep returning to the streets after being caught and convicted in some cases.
“I think the RCMP and the city is doing a great job based on the resources they have available to them, and at this point, the RCMP have made many arrests related to the activity going on in the city,” said Reid Sidhu. “Sometimes it seems like individuals get out and they’re on probation, or they’re on bail, and they’ve been found with weapons, and it seems a little ironic that they’re getting out.”
“I think maybe our judicial system needs to be revisited,” she said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the IHIT tipline at 1-877-551-4448, or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.