Woman found dead in vehicle in Surrey with gunshot wound
The circumstances were all too familiar: a shooting apparently targeting the driver of a car; a burning vehicle possibly linked to the killers found soon afterwards in a nearby city.
Several recent murders associated to the Lower Mainland gang conflict have been eerily similar.
The difference with a fatal shooting in Surrey on Thursday was the gender of the victim: a 30-something woman who died inside her vehicle in the alleyway of the 13700 block of 75A Avenue.
Surrey RCMP responded to a call about a single-car collision just after 5:30 a.m. When officers arrived, they found the woman with critical injuries. First responders were unable to revive her.
Later Thursday, Abbotsford police found a car on fire at Lefeuvre Road and Myrtle Avenue that may have been used to transport the killer or killers.
Sgt. Frank Jang, of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said officers are trying to confirm the woman's identity as they piece together what happened.
Until then, they can't say if she was the latest victim of an out-ofcontrol gang war or if the motive is something else entirely.
“The early indications are that it does not appear to be random, just from what we've seen at the scene and just from previous investigations that are similar in nature,” Jang said.
He said it's too early to say if the woman was the intended target.
“Once we determine the identity of our victim, we will have a lot of information to work with — who she is, her background, what is the possible motive behind this? All these questions we hope to answer once we know who she is.”
Jang said the car that the woman was driving was registered to a woman in her late 20s.
Investigators have been canvassing the area since the shooting. They're looking for dashcam footage and home-surveillance video that might have captured the suspect vehicle, Jang said.
“If you have video, please check it — especially if you live in that area,” he said. “It's so important.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-5514448 or ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.
He said that given the time of day, there would have been fewer vehicles on the road, which may help police track the suspects' movements before and after the crime.
Jang said that a burnt vehicle in itself is not necessarily suspicious.
“But when it's closely followed by a shooting or homicide, obviously it's something that piques our interest,” he said.
Thursday's murder comes just days after Riyad Rasheed, who was associated with the United Nations gang, was shot to death in the parking lot outside a busy Shoppers Drug Mart at Fraser Highway and 152nd Street in Surrey.
Much of the recent gun violence has been linked to a conflict between the UN and the Brothers Keepers gang.
Jang said “the recent acts of violence — the homicides — are of concern to us as they are to our partners in the local detachments and police departments.”
Several other women have been killed or injured in suspected gang shootings targeting vehicles over the years. In June 2014, Mia Deakin was wounded in a shooting at an east Vancouver gas station, where she had stopped with her Wolf Pack gang boyfriend Jeffrey Chang, the likely target.
In December 2011, Thuy Yen (Jenny) Vu, 38, was shot to death in her BMW SUV as her three-yearold son sat in the back seat.