Yet another Metro Vancouver man known to police was targeted and slain at a Surrey golf course Wednesday night as the number of gang-related killings mounts.

But unlike many other targeted hits -- which police find difficult to solve -- a golfer gave investigators a good start by memorizing the licence number of a car carrying two men who appeared to be waiting for someone.

"Organized crime is ruining our golf," quipped one golfer at Eaglequest Coyote Creek golf course in Surrey on Thursday.

Police say a 28-year-old man named Hark Hans was found dead in a white car in the parking lot of that golf course just after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

According to witnesses, two men sat in a dark vehicle. One witnesses took down their licence plate -- a good thing, because the parking lot has no security cameras.

Neighbours heard the gunshots. "There were several shots, maybe five or six," said a man who gave his name as Sean.

The rear window of the car appeared to be shattered, leading police to believe the man may have been shot in the back of the head.

Police and ambulances were called, and investigators interviewed as many as 100 golfers that night.

On Thursday morning, the golf course was still behind police tape, and detectives were scouring the crime scene for details.

In less than a year, the RCMP's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has investigated 46 murders in Metro Vancouver. This murder is the 18th this year.

But they are staying quiet on this latest murder, said Insp. Wayne Rideout, who heads IHIT.

"There's a balance we need to achieve," Rideout said. "We need to tell the people when they are at risk. They certainly have a right to basic information.

"So the balance we need to achieve is perhaps letting them know these things but a day or two when we know how it's going to affect our investigation, rather than in the first few hours when we don't know how it's going to affect us," he said.

Hans' was the sixth murder in the past two weeks, and comes on the heels of a string of high-profile slayings, including the ambush of two men in their car on Granville Street, and the massacre of six people in a Surrey high-rise last fall.

But charging those responsible is becoming increasingly rare. Since 2003, IHIT has only solved 38 gang-related murders out of more than 100 cases.

That's less than half the usual clearance rate. Investigators also admit that when it comes to homicides involving more sophisticated groups, that rate drops even further -- as low as 10 per cent.

"People who are involved in organized crime activity, who commit crimes for a living, on a day-to-day basis, operate in a very secretive manner, they operate in a manner that makes it very difficult for the police to obtain admissible evidence against them," said Rideout.

Rideout says that's not good enough.

Steve Brown's brother-in-law Ed Schellenberg was one of the two innocent victims caught up in the still-unsolved killings at the Balmoral Towers.

"We want to see these guys caught, we want to see them off the street, we want to see justice," he said.

Brown says his family is willing to wait to see justice done -- regardless of how long that takes.

"The situation with these rival gangs, it's obviously a turf war. The police don't want to make any mistakes," he said.

With reports from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington and Stephen Smart