Surrey shooting kills family dog
Whalley house believed targeted as area residents call for urgent action
The latest in a rash of Surrey shootings has claimed another victim, this time a family dog.
A Whalley street was behind police tape Tuesday as officers canvassed the neighbourhood for witnesses to the early morning attack.
Bullets were fired through the front door and window of a home in the 10100-block of 127th Street at about 12:35 a.m., the second Surrey shooting in less than 24 hours. A dogwasfounddeadinsidethehome and it’s believed the pet died from a gunshot wound. One person was inside the home at the time but was not injured.
This week’s gunplay brings the total number of shootings in Surrey this year to 42, including one fatal.
Police believe Tuesday’s shooting was a targeted attack, but not linked to an ongoing low-level drug feud that has flared up.
Area resident groups say more needs to be done to combat the violence.
Darlene Bower of the Surrey Sustainable Communities Association maintains that all parties must get together to work out a solution.
“All we’ve been getting is promises that they’ll do something about it,” said Bower on Tuesday. “We got more police officers, but we still have shootings on the street, not just in the middle of the night but also in the daylight.
“I’d like to see a roundtable discussion with community leaders, federal government representatives, city representatives and provincial representatives, and probably the ministry of health. I’d like to see everybody in one room working toward getting solutions to the problem.”
Bower said much more needs to be done to implement the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Crime Reduction, entitled Getting Serious About Crime Reduction, led by Abbotsford South MLA Darryl Plecas, especially in the areas of managing prolific and priority offenders more effectively, making quality mental health and addiction services more accessible; and making greater use of restorative justice.
“As far as I can see, nothing has been done with (Plecas’ report). We have shootings on the street because we have drug lords. And we have so many people with mental health and addictions (issues).”
Surrey’s director of public safety strategies, Terry Waterhouse, said Tuesday that in January they began developing a strategy that will take a comprehensive approach to public safety.
“As part of that, we’ve been out in the community meeting with community agencies and holding focus groups and planning sessions with citizens, stakeholders, business, youth, seniors, as examples. To date we’ve met with over 1,600 people and we’ve also had online surveys to hear concerns and ideas on how to move forward.”
Waterhouse said the strategy manual will be released this fall outlining a number of initiatives and priorities on tackling crime. “We just finished the consultation and we’re putting the report together over the summer on how we will tackle it.”
Waterhouse noted that Surrey has already held a number of roundtables over the years, “and at this point it was felt the most appropriate way forward was to engage the community directly to ensure that we’re responding to issues identifiedasprioritiesbythecommunity.”
Waterhouse said the city isn’t ruling out the type of roundtable that Bowerhasproposedatafuturedate.
Reports of another shooting as well as a victim who showed up at a local hospital with a gunshot wound kept police busy on Monday night.
Mounties were called to the 12800-block 60th Avenue on Monday at around 8 p.m. and officers found evidence of gunfire in the area. There were no reported injuries. RCMP say eyewitnesses reported two vehicles leaving the scene soon after shots rang out. Descriptions of the vehicles have not yet been confirmed.
A half-hour later, Surrey RCMP were advised that a young man, who is known to police, showed up at a local area hospital suffering from a gunshot wound.
The 21-year-old victim’s injury is not considered life threatening.
Surrey RCMP’s Serious Crime Unit believes the shooting was targeted. Officers are looking into possible links between this incident and the earlier shooting.
All we’ve been getting is promises that they’ll do something about it ... but we still have shootings.