Vancouver police are going after gangs “aggressively,” says the city’s top cop.
Chief Adam Palmer made the remarks Monday afternoon in response to a “brazen” shooting in the city Saturday night that left an innocent bystander clinging to life.
One man was killed and two others were injured after two people exchanged gunfire in the area of Broadway and Ontario Street at around 9:15 p.m. Saturday.
Kevin Whiteside, 23, of Vancouver was one of the two people involved the exchange. He was seriously injured and subsequently died. Palmer said he is known to police.
One of two innocent bystanders injured, a 15-year-old Coquitlam boy, is on life support and is not expected to survive, the chief said. The teen was in a car with his parents heading east on Broadway when the shooting started.
A third victim, a Vancouver man in his 30s, sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
“My heart goes out the family of the 15-year-old boy,” Palmer said. “They were having a normal Saturday night evening out with family and now they are grieving for their son.
“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 more than 50 Vancouver police officers have been devoted to the investigation and have already made “significant progress in the last 40 hours.”
Investigators are still trying to determine how many people were involved in the shooting.
“There was at least one other person with a weapon,” Palmer said. “We’re reviewing video and talking to witnesses as I speak and we’re trying to piece that part together.”
He was not commenting on if the suspect(s) were on foot or in a vehicle.
Palmer had a message for gangs in the city.
“Our message to gangs, and it’s a similar message that we’ve had in Vancouver for a long time, is that we go after gangs aggressively in Vancouver,” he said. “That has been our focus for many years. We are targeting gangs as we speak and there’s been several major projects just in the last couple of months that we’ve reported to you where we’ve arrested gang members with firearms and fentanyl and for all kinds of violent offences and we’re continuing to target gang members and when they engage in this type of activity in the city we’re going to come after them aggressively.”
There have been a number of shootings in the city in recent months that police believe were targeted.
Since May there have been nine separate incidents where shots were fired reported by police that were deemed to be targeted. In most of the cases no one was injured; however, a case earlier this month saw two men in their 20s injured after being shot in a parking lot in an industrial area in the city’s south end. And in May a woman in her 30s was killed in what police described as a targeted shooting.
• May 23: 33-year- old Janice Nicole Bryant died after being shot at around 5 p.m. near Seventh Avenue and St. Catharines Street.
• July 25: Shots are fired into a house in the area of Kings Avenue and Reid Street just before 11 p.m. Investigators identified the intended victims, who are known to police. No one was injured.
• Aug. 2: Shots fired in the area of Kamloops Street and East 10th Avenue just before 10:30 p.m. No one was injured and the shooting appeared to be targeted.
• Aug. 22: Shots fired into a house in the area of Kaslo Street and East 22nd Avenue just before midnight. Investigators believe the house was targeted.
• Aug. 29: Shots fired at a residence in the area of Rupert Street and Grandview Highway. Investigators believe the incident was not random.
• Sept. 12: Shot were fired in the area of East 33rd Avenue and Argyle Street just after 2 p.m. There were no reports of injuries and the incident appeared to be targeted.
• Sept. 19: Police received reports of shots fired just before 12:30 a.m. in the area of Main Street and East 57th Avenue. Unable to initially confirm the reports, officers were called back to the scene the next morning after shell casings and a firearm were found on the ground, as well as a number of parked cars with what appeared to be bullet holes. At the time police said the incident appeared to be targeted.
• Oct. 13: Just after 2:30 p.m. police received several reports of shots fired and people fleeing the area of Main Street and East 51st Avenue. No one was injured but at least one occupied business was hit by a stray bullet. Three men were taken into custody for questioning. Two were later released without charges and the third remained in custody on an unrelated matter. Police believe it was a targeted shooting.
• Jan. 6: Two men in their early 20s were shot in a parking lot in an industrial area at East Kent Avenue South near Borden Street. They were taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Investigators believe the shooting was targeted.
@JessicaEKerr
