ABBOTSFORD - Video obtained by CTV News shows just how close innocent victims came to being caught in the line of fire during a recent targeted shooting in Abbotsford.
The footage shows two people with their faces partially covered approach a dark-coloured SUV in the line-up at a Tim Hortons drive-thru on South Fraser Way. The pair both raise their arms and point something at the vehicle. The SUV then takes off, ramming into a car to escape.
Const. Jody Thomas with the Abbotsford Police Department confirmed the shooting took place in the drive-thru, and investigators are now actively hunting for the people responsible.
“This shooting was absolutely brazen. It happened in a drive-thru in the evening when people are going about their day-to-day lives,” Thomas said.
“The people that did the shooting had absolutely no regard for public safety.”
A witness who was in the car that was rammed spoke to CTV News, but wanted his identity protected due to safety concerns. He said his father was driving when he noticed another car he described as a Chrysler pull in, but “didn’t think anything of it.” He said when he looked back out the front of the car, he saw two people who appeared to be “masked.”
“I saw one raise his hand with a gun, and I ducked right away, and yelled, ‘Go, go, go!’ to my father, and he said he couldn’t, because the Chrysler was right in front of us, there was nowhere to go,” he said.
“My first initial instinct was I’m about to get shot and I’m going to die.”
The witness said he then heard gunshots, and someone yell “move, move, move,” and then his car was rammed. He said he saw the dark SUV speed off, and the two people got into the Chrysler and took off in the other direction.
“Physically, my father and I are in quite a bit of pain ‘cause we ducked and we were kind of bunched up in a ball as we got hit,” he said, and added his car is a write-off.
Police said a car believed to have been involved in the shooting was found burned a short distance away. Later, a man in his early 20s showed up at the hospital with non-life threatening gunshot wounds, in a vehicle that had been damaged by bullets.
Thomas said police are looking for any additional witnesses, or anyone with dash camera video.
“What happened was wrong, and our department is upset. We have devoted multiple resources to find out who is responsible for this and we will not tolerate that in Abbotsford,” Thomas said, and called the shooting the first “significant” incident to happen in the city this year.
The witness who spoke to CTV News said his experience has had a mental impact, too.
“I’m on edge. My son, who’s five years old, wanted to come with us that night, and I told him no,” he said, and added his child would have been in the back seat if he had come along.
“I would never want him to live through what I’m living through currently.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Abbotsford Police at 604-859-5225, or text them at 222973 (AbbyPD). Reports can also be made anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or online at Solvecrime.ca.
With files from CTV News Vancouver's Kendra Mangione
