VANCOUVER -- The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is investigating a fatal shooting that took place in the Maillardville neighbourhood of Coquitlam on Saturday afternoon.
Images from the scene in the alley between Henderson and Roderick avenues, near Hart Street, showed police tape blocking off a white SUV.
“Officers arrived to find a man with gunshot wounds, who was pronounced dead at (the) scene,” reads a statement from IHIT’s Sgt. Frank Jang.
Several police vehicles responded to the incident just before 5:30 p.m.
Shortly after their arrival, a yellow tarp was placed on the ground, covering what appeared to be a body. Jang said that police are working to identify the man and notify his family.
CTV News Vancouver has learned the victim is connected to gangs in the Lower Mainland.
“The investigation is in its early stages and IHIT is working closely with the I-Teams along with the Coquitlam RCMP to gather evidence,” Jang continued.
Lennie Olafson lives in a laneway home near where the shooting took place and told CTV News she heard at least four gunshots just before 5:30 p.m.
She said she's certain they were gunshots, because she was present during the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas and cannot forget the sound.
Soon after the shots rang out, Olafson said, she began hearing sirens. She went out into the laneway and found that her house was behind the police tape.
"I can't drive out because there's a dead body in my alley," Olafson said on Saturday evening.
In Calgary on Saturday evening, another man was shot and killed in a crime that bears many of the hallmarks associated with violence in the Lower Mainland gang conflict.
It happened around 5:30 p.m. in the southwest quadrant of the city, when police received multiple reports of gunfire in the area.
Officers arrived to find a man with gunshot wounds. He was declared dead at the scene.
Police have not released the man’s name but do say they believe he was targeted.
Through sources, CTV News has learned the victim is Gurkeert Kalkat, whose brother was shot and killed just 10 days earlier in the parking lot at Market Crossing in Burnaby.
The siblings were both part of the Brothers Keepers gang that has been at the centre of the Lower Mainland drug trade and gang wars in recent years.
“The level of violence demonstrated in this incident is extremely concerning to us,” says Staff Sgt. Martin Schiavetta of the Calgary Police Service Homicide Unit. “We are dedicating resources from across the service to this investigation to ensure that the individuals involved are held accountable.”
A short time after the shooting, a car was set on fire just over a kilometre away and police believe it is related to the murder.
Calgary police also said they would be working closely with law enforcement in other jurisdictions, but did not specifically mention IHIT or any other B.C. agencies.
Retired Vancouver Police Department gang detective Doug Spencer told CTV News it does not surprise him to learn the latest Calgary murder might also be linked to the gang war unfolding in Metro Vancouver.
“They’re coming out to Calgary to sell their drugs, right? There’s not enough addicts here for them and they’ve got so much dope that they’ve got to move it. It’s their commodity,” Spencer said.
Many of the recent gang-related murders have been carried out in crowded public places, causing significant risk to innocent bystanders as members of the criminal underworld target each other wherever they can.
“Be cognizant,” Spencer said. “They’re out and about and the way they’re doing these public shootings, everybody’s in the crosshairs of a rifle.”
Anyone with information on the Coquitlam incident or dashcam footage is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or by email at ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca. If they wish to remain anonymous, they can contact Crime Stoppers.
