Surrey mayor ‘beyond angry’ about shooting
Woman in minivan with family hit by a stray bullet during gunfight between two vehicles
Sunday’s brazen gunfire between alleged gangsters which injured an innocent Surrey woman has the city’s mayor spitting mad.
“I’m beyond angry now,” Linda Hepner said Monday between council meetings.
“Beyond contempt,” Hepner said of her feelings toward the shooters.
That an uninvolved bystander had been hurt — a woman who was in a nearby minivan with her family when gunfire erupted between the occupants of two other vehicles — “is exactly what I was fearful of.”
“They will be caught,” she declared about the suspects.
“I fully expect the full extent of the law coming down hard on them.”
The mayor said she wanted to see the shooters face heavy punishment in court.
“What else could be a stronger deterrent than going to jail?” she said.
Hepner said she had spoken with the woman, who is recovering from her wound.
“You can imagined how frightened she is.”
The shooting, which police say took place around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, drew multiple 911 calls from the 7700-block 147A Street, a quiet residential street near the western edge of the Guildford Golf and Country Club.
Initial investigations by Surrey RCMP suggest the shots were fired by the occupants of a red pickup truck at a black Hyundai, which apparently also sustained damage to its front end; reportedly the front bumper had fallen off. According to witnesses, the intended targets drove off.
A short time later, the red pickup was found burning in the 9000-block 150th Street; witnesses said two males were spotted fleeing the area.
Hepner said the city hosted the FVDED In The Park music festival in Holland Park on the weekend with no incidents.
The actions of these young men and what the innocent woman was dealing with were drawing attention away from what had been an otherwise good weekend in her city. “That really ticks me,” she said. Surrey RCMP concurred with the mayor’s concerns.
“We have spoken numerous times about an incident like this and now in this incident they were closer than ever to a catastrophe, this is very concerning behaviour to both the police and the community of Surrey,” Staff Sgt. Dale Carr said in a news release on Sunday.
“I have said in the past that the same small group of people consistently place a stain on this great city and endanger its precious citizens.”