A three-year-old boy sat inside a car as his father was gunned down just metres away in a Vancouver suburb Monday night.
Police in New Westminster, southeast of Vancouver, responded to a call of shots fired outside an apartment building in residiential neighbourhood around 8 p.m.
Patrol officers arrived to find the victim, 33-year-old New Westminster resident Nelson Ramirez Guerrero, lying on the road about three metres from his vehicle. Investigators believe he was inside the car when the shooting started.
B.C. Integrated Homicide Investigation Team spokesperson Cpl. Dale Carr said Guerrero died at the scene. The tot, who was sitting in the back seat, was unharmed. He is now in the custody of his mother -- Guerrero was dropping the child off at his ex-wife's apartment after a visit.
Witness Jen Hewitt told CTV News she heard at least five gunshots.
"I thought they were, like, firecrackers with all the Diwali celebrations and stuff," she said.
Carr said it's too early to determine if the shooting is linked to gangs, drugs or organized crime, but the team does believe it is targeted.
Carr said the forensic investigation is in its infancy and investigators are trying to figure out what, if any, links Guerrero had to others in the Metro Vancouver region.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us," he said. "We have the deceased male and then of course the tragic event of a small three-year-old boy inside the vehicle at the time. Again, I'd like to impress that he was not hurt -- physically at least."
Guerrero had several aliases and spent several years in a U.S. prison.
He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Louisiana in 2000 on six counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. He was caught up in a fraudulent telemarketing business in Canada that promised victims a big cash prize if they sent payments to cover the taxes.
Carr said the homicide has many similarities to the 2009 murder of Nikki Alemy, the 23-year-old mother who was gunned down in her husband's white Cadillac.
In that case, the victim's four-year-old son was in the back seat at the time of the attack but escaped injury.
