Teen boy caught in Vancouver crossfire dies
Gun battle on street hits bystander
A 15- year- old boy caught in the crossfire of a weekend shooting in Vancouver has died, according to the B. C. Coroners Service.
One of the gunmen died at the scene.
“This is the type of call I absolutely dread and I am i ncredibly saddened and heartbroken,” Chief Const. Adam Palmer said Monday, hours before the boy died.
“It is rare in Vancouver for an innocent victim to be caught up in this type of violence and this investigation remains a priority for us. We are pulling all available resources together.”
On Saturday at around 9: 15 p. m., police were called to East Broadway and Ontario in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood for a report of shots fired.
Three people were hurt, including the 15- year- old Coquitlam boy who was in a vehicle passing through the area when he was hit by a stray bullet.
“They were having a normal Saturday night evening out with family and now they are grieving for their son,” News 1130 quoted Palmer as saying. “My message to the family is this: we will not ever be able to fully comprehend your grief, but the Vancouver Police Department will do whatever it takes to seek justice for your son.”
Palmer said there were 50 VPD officers working on the case.
A witness told Global News on Saturday, “There was a guy running down the street just shooting a gun, running down the sidewalk, aiming and shooting at something, I didn’t see what.
“Forty- five seconds later I looked, and there’s that same guy — appeared to be the same guy — down on the ground.”
Police say Kevin Whiteside, a 23- year- old Vancouver man who was known to police, died from gunshot wounds.
Police said Whiteside, whose criminal record included a weapons offence conviction, was exchanging gunfire with another person.
Area resident Gloria Gribling said she heard what she thought were fireworks going off Saturday evening.
“I heard quite a l arge bang and then I thought that sounds like a gunshot, and then I thought ridiculous, I’m watching too much TV,” she said. “And then I hear immediately afterward what sounded like fireworks, very fast explosions but they weren’t as loud as the first one.”
She said Broadway was a busy thoroughfare, and while the noise seemed out of character, she considered the area typically safe.
“I have no fear of going for walks or anything like that around here, it’s very safe,” Gribling said.
Sgt. Jason Robillard described t he gunfight as “brazen.”
Added Palmer, “Every time criminals decide to exchange gunfire on our streets, they endanger the lives of everybody around them. The events of Saturday night were reckless, were reprehensible and there’s no justification for this type of senseless violence in our city.”
Another i nnocent bystander, a 30- year- old Vancouver man driving the area, was treated for minor injuries and released at the scene.
Premier John Horgan made an appeal for people to contact police if they know anything that might help the investigation.
“My heart goes out to family and friends of the innocent boy caught up in the violence of the Vancouver shooting Saturday,” he said on Twitter.
Palmer said the last loss of an innocent life he could recall was a shooting in 2004 outside a nightclub in the Gastown district that claimed the life of Rachel Davis, who was 23.
She was trying to stop a man from beating another man who was on the ground when she was shot. Her companion was shot and wounded in the wrist and shoulder.
The victim on the ground, Richard Hui, was also killed. Both Davis and Hui died of bullet wounds to the head.
Imran Sharif, 25, was found guilty in 2006 of two counts of first- degree murder an.
EVENING OUT WITH FAMILY AND NOW THEY ARE GRIEVING FOR THEIR SON.