Calls growing to curb gun violence
GANGS: Public safety minister to meet with senior police officials and Surrey mayor to discuss solutions
B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth will meet Thursday with senior RCMP officers and Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner to find ways to deal with escalating gang violence terrorizing Metro Vancouver residents.
Farnworth told Postmedia News that he is “extremely disturbed” by a rash of public shootings in recent days that have left a teenage gangster dead, three men injured and Metro Vancouver residents on edge.
“It is appalling what is taking place,” Farnworth said. “We need to do everything we can to make sure we keep our communities safe. It is unacceptable what’s going on. And that’s what makes people angry — I know it makes me angry.”
He said if police tell him they need more resources, the new B.C. government would look at providing more to tackle the gang and gun problem.
Surrey has been particularly hard hit by the violence with three gang shootings in less than 12 hours Tuesday, one of which sent a victim to hospital.
Acting Surrey Mayor Tom Gill called on the provincial government to launch a review to determine where B.C. gangsters are getting their guns.
He said more research is needed on the weapons of choice that violent drug traffickers are using to shoot up cars, homes and enemies on city streets.
“I think certainly there needs to be better analysis of how a gangster is able to get a gun, where they are getting their inventory,” Gill told Postmedia.
“I think it would be to our benefit to understand how many of these guns are really out there in the community and what kind of impact that does potentially have both to our youth and to other victims.”
Gill also said more regional coordination between policing agencies could help stem the violence. And he called for more funding for B.C.’s anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.
“I think that there needs to be an even tighter level of coordination between the different municipalities and CFSEU. I think certainly when you look at some of the different examples — we had a death in Abbotsford, we had a car that was burnt in Langley and a number of shootings in Surrey — I think that it’s probably fair to suggest that many of these issues are related,” Gill said.
CFSEU Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton said in many of the cases it is too early for investigators to make links between shootings and suspects.
“We caution people in making these connections, when these connections do not necessarily exist,” Houghton said Wednesday.
And he said that CFSEU works closely with partner agencies around B.C., but is not the police force of jurisdiction when shootings first occur.
“If those agencies discover there is a gang motivation … we will eventually get engaged somehow,” he said.
Farnworth and Houghton both called on members of the public to come forward with information about the shootings so that investigations can lead to arrests and charges.
“The reality is that a lot of the shootings in the last few months are by kids,” Farnworth said. “The police know who they are and most of them are still living at home. So parents and family members have information. People have to come forward. The only way the police can lay charges is if they have information.”
Farnworth agreed that more data needs to be gathered about where gangsters are getting their firearms. He said some of the research is already underway.
“I do know that a task force was created last spring. I know they have been meeting on the issue. And I am waiting to get their final report and be briefed on it,” he said.
B.C. residents “are concerned about the flow of illegal weapons getting into the hands of criminals,” Farnworth said. “The more information, the better it is for everyone.”
Farnworth said he met with Abbotsford Police chief Bob Rich on Wednesday to get his ideas on tackling the gang problem. After his meetings in Surrey, he also plans to meet with Vancouver Police Department officers.