Retaliation is likely after a weekend shooting that left 10 people injured at a birthday party attended by gangsters, according a local gang expert.
The shooting happened in front of a restaurant in Vancouver's posh Shaughnessy neighbourhood, close to the home of the mayor, who was among dozens who called 911.
Det. Doug Spencer, a longtime police officer on the Metro Vancouver gang beat who now conducts youth gang presentations with the Odd Squad, said beefs between gangsters can last for decades and revenge for this latest violence is likely.
"Some go back to high school -- 10, 15-years-ago -- and they won't go away," he told CTV News.
Spencer said although the opportunities to exact punishment may only seldom appear, they won't go unnoticed by gang members.
"They find out they'll be going to a birthday party, they'll be going to Metrotown, so phone calls are made and they go get him," he said.
Spencer says the biggest fear in public shootings is the chance for innocent bystanders to be caught in the middle of the gunplay.
"Innocent people are going to eventually get hit," he said.
"We can't stop these guys from killing each other. We try and target them with limited resources. Unfortunately they are going to do it. If they really want to do it they're going to do it."
Police sources tell CTV News the late night party on Oak Street was attended by the Askari brothers, who police say are tied to a major gang.
They had just returned back to Canada from Iran and someone tried to assassinate Sahand Askari in Coquitlam last week.
Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu said the shooting is all about an ongoing feud which bubbled over when longtime gangster and Askari rival Gurmit Singh Dhak was shot to death outside Metrotown Mall in Burnaby on Oct. 17.
The 32-year-old already had previous attempts on his life, including a high-profile shooting at Quattro restaurant in Kitsilano in 2007. In that hit, he and a woman were hit by bullets but both survived.
Last week, police took the extraordinary move to warn the public about pending violence.
Officers also interrupted a gang meeting at a Vancouver park, seizing assault rifles from the scene.
Three women were among the victims in this weekend's shooting. Police say gang hits are no longer gender specific.
Spencer remembers the Fortune Happiness restaurant shooting in East Vancouver in Aug. 2007, when several women were shot.
"Some guys came in shot the three guys two died and then afterwards they went and shot all four girls at the table. And those girls had recently met those guys at a nightclub," he said.
Shinder Kirk of the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force hopes the women will be the ones to curtail the violence.
"Now they can be targeted just as much as their husbands or boyfriends or male friends --- we are reaching out to them," he said.
Gang tensions in Metro Vancouver last soared just under two years ago when gangs warring over the drug trade made increasingly public attacks on each other.
The wave of killings on Vancouver streets and in surrounding cities left two dozen people dead in the first six months of 2009.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington
