Updated: Wed Feb. 11 2009 11:27:13

ctvbc.ca

There has been yet another targeted shooting on B.C.'s Lower Mainland streets, but this time police aren't sure if anyone is hurt.

Early Wednesday morning a gun battle erupted between the occupants of two vehicles in near 86th Ave. and 200th St. in Langley.

A clerk working at the Chevron gas station says its security video shows two vehicles speeding around the lot while the occupants fired at each other.

"They were just driving around like (a) cat and mouse shooting at each other," said a woman who wanted to be identified only as Jenn. "And then they took off and went into the Tim Hortons parking lot and battled it out and took off."

A bullet-riddled grey pickup truck has been towed from the scene and several shell casings have been recovered. The licence plates of the truck have been removed.

"It would appear as though one of the bullets actually immobilized the engine of the vehicle," said Const. Holly Marks of the RCMP's Langley detachment.

Police still haven't found any victims. They are canvassing local hospitals in hopes of finding the truck's owner, and to determine if the vehicle was stolen. "We haven't been able to locate any of the involved parties at this point," Marks said.

The shooting happened only blocks away from the Langley shopping centre where Kevin LeClair, 26, was shot and killed last Friday.

There have been seven shootings in the past week in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, four of them fatal.

A problem that can't be ignored

The recent spate of gun violence has police and politicians under the gun.

B.C.'s premier says the problem is obvious, and is promising a major crackdown on gangs.

"We will need more police officers. We will focus them on gangs," Gordon Campbell said Tuesday.

"Gangs in British Columbia should know this, if you are here we're coming after you and you are not accepted in our neighborhoods, in our communities, and anywhere in our province."

Campbell says he intends to hire more special prosecutors and maybe even create a special courtroom to prosecute gangsters.

But the opposition party slammed yesterday's announcement, saying the government has waited too long to act.

"This issue has been going on at least two years and let's take a look at this government's record," said opposition NDP leader Carole James.

"Ten correctional institutions closed, youth services cut, fewer court houses in British Columbia. No wonder B.C. has become Canada's safe haven for organized crime."

With files from The Canadian Press

Comments are now closed for this story

Harry Loewen
The Premier is missing the point. We don't necessarily need more police. We need a court system that will stop aiding and abetting criminals. As it is, they get cought, taken to court and the judges simply throw it out or give meaningless sentences. The judicial system is the problem. We need tougher laws against those who are part of criminal gangs.
I am embarrassed and frustrated with the failure of the courts in addressing this issue.

Angry Langley resident
This is complete garbage. The police need to stop sitting around and actually DO something !!!!

Allan (Vancouver)
And people objected to gun control. At least if there was a regulated gun registry we would have some control. Now apparently any yahoo who identifies with the likes of John Dillinger can run rampant through the streets firing at will.

Frank Trenholm
Grumbling from Merritt

Will someone explain to me why can't a law be created that makes it an offense to be a member of a gang?

In addition, make it an automatic jail term for being the leader of a gang.

Ross St. George
This is a problem that society as a whole has contributed to.

There are many many people now using drugs in BC recreationally, giving criminals an unbelievable ammount of undeclared revenue. There are parents who turn a blind eye to negative actions of their childen, punish them! There are courts who cannot put someone behind bars.

The public should be very concerned about the upcomming Olympics. Consider this: if 1,000,000 people visit vancouver for the Olympics, and if 10% of those people purchase pot for the minimum amount sold on the street (an eighth for $30.00) that would produce $3,000,000.00!!!

gary
Regarding the comments by Allan. How naive! As if the gangs who smuggle guns across the border are going to register them. All handguns in Canada have always had to be registered and the person owning them has to have a permit.

Kevin in Vancouver
Firstly, a gun registry would not stop the trafficing of illegal firearms and would do nothing to control illegal weapons.
Government must enact laws that punish severly anyone caught with a concealled weapon. 2. Police must be given enhanced powers of search so they can pull suspected gang members over and search their person and vehicles. Finally, We need to bite the bullet and legalize as well as distribute drugs thus removing the source of revenue from the criminals.
This is the only solution and your option as a civillian is this; cling to your foolish views on civil liberties and face increasing violence in the streets. This is not going away but it is definately growing.

pays to be criminal in canada
Agreed with Harry Loewen. It truly pays to be a criminal in canada. For example a man yesterday was caught telemarketing in vancouver to usa elderly citizens. they gave him 8 months ...with good behaviour thats 5 months! In the usa telemarketers that target the elderly get 10 years minimum!

CANADA STOP WASTING THE RCMP'S TIME BY GIVING CRIMINALS A SLAP ON THE WRIST! ..The problem is so bad the RCMP when possible deport criminals as often as possible to be tryed by tougher laws in thier home counties. Help the police out by throwing the book at them!

William (Vancouver)
Since illegal guns and gangs can not be regulated, stepped up vigilance in preventing illegal guns/drugs from entering Canada and sentences from our courts that fit the crime would be as step in the right direction.

Judging by the sentences our law courts have been handing out it seems Canada at present does not have a justice system, only a legal system.

Contrary to an earlier comment, Canada still has a regulated gun registry for all legal firearms. However, I doubt that the gang members use it.

Randy
I dont have a problem with them killing each other off, but the stray bullets are a concern for me and my family.

Also, since nobody here mentioned it, why are the gangsters disporportionatly of new immigrants? Is there some sort of problem with the screening process that allows foreign criminals to bring their terror onto our streets?

Lorne
There is very little sense in getting new police officers if suspected criminals are just patted on the back of the hand and told they are bad and you shouldn't do that anymore and sent on their way. We need to change our laws in parliament and then do something about judges who are so overcome by political correctness that they dare not take proper positions in the courtroom. Political correctness is at the basis of all of this foolishness and may very well lead to the dissolution of our legal and justice system. It is easy to understand the frustration of the police who spent several months bringing criminals to justice only to find them on the street plying their trade the next day. Couple that with crippling amounts of paperwork that they need to do when they should be out on the streets and it is easy to see that from the police perspective "what's the point"?

Gary
The RCMP has become a much overrated, toothless bulldog, which is more interested in making sure they are politically correct in their hiring and on parade, than actually being a crack, no nonsense force which mercilessly goes after the gangsters, and shoots them if they behave aggressively. If they can justify maximum force against the hapless Polish man at YVR, then surely they can justify eliminating the gangster scourge before an innocent bystander is killed in the crossfire. What British Columbia needs to do now, is to ditch the RCMP and establish a new, modern BC force, based on the Calgary Police Service model.

N Hansford
I see the topic of gun control and the registry has come up again . Don't people know the guns used in these attacks are already illegal. Targeting hunters and ranchers rifles won't affect the criminals one bit

Ad
I agree with Harry 100% , the problem is with our justice system. How can more cops help when the courts just slap these guys on the wrist and send them back onto the streets!!!!

Dano in BC
@ Gary.

I'm a little confused...what good would basing our new "hypothetical" provincial police on Calgary's Police service do? Calgary has more than it's share of gang and gun violence. What great success story are you trying to make out of that?

SK Gun Owner
Gun control will NOT stop this violence...it penalizes legitimate gun owners and removes their rights to own private property. If a person is killed in an auto accident, do you demand that cars be removed from people who had nothing to do with it? Deal with the real issue - ethnic gangs...

???
We need to start punishing negligent parents supporting this behaviour. The police can't be everywhere with all the cutbacks. Otherwise we need more money for committed to policing & security.

Mutt from Windsor
Decades of weak liberal appoited Judges and appellate courts, over worked police and Crown attourney's and this is what you get. Turn the tide by giving Harper the support to do what needs to be done. Enough of the NDP socialist crap that society is to blame. Kids join gangs because they offer the discipline and structure that families and the courts fail to provide. It's easier and less risky to deal drugs and be in a gang than it is to get a job. Enough already!!!!

Mary
Scooping every druggie off the streets and locking them up is an activity which gets us nowhere. U.S. jails are bulging with these folk.

What would help B.C. a lot is if we had integrity in leadership. That, in my view, would have to begin with the Campbell Government deciding to co-operate with its own Crown Prosecutors in the Basi Virk / BC Rail trial.

All Gordo has to do is open the files and let Basi and Virk have the documents they need for a fair trial.

Why does the government fight this? Imagine what it's costing the taxpayers of BC to keep sending lawyers into BC Supreme Court day after day, into Appeal Court, then Supreme Court of Canada (Ottawa), as the Campbell Gang stalls, trying to keep essential documents secret. Documents about the sale of a publicly-owned railroad which slipped into private hands. Not Campbell's documents but ours.

Or maybe delaying these disclosures is just a sneaky way of dragging this trial on ... and on ... until another election (May 12) is over.

Rotten behaviour like this is telling the world that there's not much integrity left in B.C.leadership.

It would be foolish to imagine that criminals haven't accepted that message as their own special welcome mat to B.C.

Jerry (Vancouver)
One of the reasons that our politicians are so unwilling to change the criminal law is the cost. To put a criminal in a federal prison will cost the taxpayers over $200 a day! The best way to deal with this is to bring back caning. That way the criminals get the punishment they deserve, and the taxpayers don't need to waste too much money by putting these social garbage in the prison!

Etienne
Last week the police were saying that they couldn't do their job without members of the general public putting their lives on the line by turning in friends and relatives. Now we find out that the person killed at Thunderbird Center last week is the son of an RCMP officer and he was still on the street. Nice work RCMP

Ryder
A Gun registry is NOT going to solve the problem with illegal weapons. All the Gun Registry is, is a cash grab by the old Liberal Government that would keep the honest gun owners honest. The weapons used in drive by shootings are in the hands of criminals. Do you, Allan in Vancouver, honestly think that gang members are going to register their semi-auto and auto weapons?!
_____________________________

Harsher sentences is definitely a start. I also think that bringing back a little corporal punishment is a good idea as is, dare I say it, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. The death penalty for gang related and all homicide. We have the technology now to prove without a doubt if someone pulled the trigger. This might make the gang members think twice.

Smitherenzes
NEWS FLASH:

Canada has a gun control law that includes ALL fire arms to be registered. And since the former federal liberal government has spent over $1B getting this thing going it must be working, right?

It has reduced gun violence, right?

All the police have to do is find the gun and they will find the criminal, right?

That's the sham of this registry. It makes criminals of farmers and duck hunters and does nothing to solve gun violence in urban centres.

not a dumb liberal, Olds AB.
Making an illegal act "extra heavy duty illegal" through a new registry fixes nothing. When are idiots going to realize this? Criminals dont legally purchase guns and register them. If you want to stop handgun proliferation the only place to do it with guarnteed success is at the factory assembly line. Otherwise you're just creating another idealistic system that will be ignored. And to the guys here alluding that it would help if normal tax paying otherwise upstanding pot smokers (the vast majority, truly) could obtain pot legally without having to support organized crime , you're onto something...

Bill
Lemme get this straight - move to the burbs for a bigger yard, spend more time in traffic to avoid the big city life of Vancouver and now have to invest in Kevlar vests just to get milk at the local grocery store??? No thanks, I'll stay put in my friendly east Vancouver neighborhood.

jimye
Wake up people. Drug money is much bigger than you think. What you see is nothing compare to what you DON'T see.
Why this problem is not being solve, it's a question for many people around the WORLD.
The answer is simple, but you don't want to believe it.
Your Government, your judges, your police and in it also. Not all of them, but there are many...

It's hard to say no to money, when money is the base of every value in our society.

Steve in Toronto
Registering guns is a waste of taxpayers money. I was listening to coast to coast the other day where the guest speaker said only 2 gun related crimes have been solved in Canada due to gun registration. Personally, if there were no gun registration I'd own one for self preservation.

DWR
This is simple people

There is the Law and then there is Justice, they are not the same thing.

DWR
Very good point Gary
When have you ever heard that a criminal has obeyed the law and registered his guns.
He steals them or smuggles them into the country, it does not matter registered or not. CRIMINALS DO NOT OBEY THE LAW

GrewUpInLangley
Yep, this is what happens when discipline is taken out of the hands of parents, when society becomes tolerant of violence on TV, and when parents are too concerned with their own lives to pay attention to their kids. This is also what happens when criminals get a slap on the wrist, when bleeding hearts believe everyone can be rehabilitated, and the government refuses to reinstate the death penalty.

Glenn
In Canada we make laws to keep the Public safe from Terrorists, but we cannot make the law tougher for Gangsters who have been more dangerous to our public safety.
Can someone please explain this?

Ted C.Crisp
What needs to happen is the police need a more creative approach to this situation.

Plain clothed officers that patrol in non standard issued vehicles might be a more effective means of policing rather then the standard we stick out like sore thumbs approach.

bad guys can spot reflective POLICE from miles away.
if you had a pimped out SUV that was a police car, the enforcers of gangs would never notice ergo better evidence and more police witnessed accounts of crimes.

The police in Vancouver need also to create a unit that is focused on making the existing organizations think it as a competitor. this way gangs will target the police created unit. make this public and gangs will choose not to battle a potential police unit.
This has worked in UK, Greece, France, and Bulgaria.

Tyler, Burnaby.
The NDP has no solutions. All they do is whine everytime. I'm sick of Carole James, Mike Farnworth, and Adrian Dix. Hopefully BC doesn't let these clowns into office. At least Gordo is trying to do something.

Darryl
Simple problem really, no backbone to the courts and penalties not near harsh enough..Police too frustrated by the way they have to go about catching these punks...too many gangs and not enough threat or deterrent to make them go away. I am sure if the laws were more severe it would reduce the attraction to be a gang-banger. It pays to be a criminal in this "Civilized" society.. Bring back capital punishment and quit worrying about how prisoners are treated so much!

Don
Here is a solution, if you are an immigrant convicted of gang activities, out you go. If you were born here, a gang gulag somewhere up north where they will be "guarded" by polar bears. Problem solved.

Jim (Vancouver)
This is not the only problem on the block! Has anyone looked at police crime statistics lately? I recently read a story which stated police officers have a higher crime rate per cap than than civilians? Is this true? lately I have noticed an increase in stories about police being involved or charged in criminal activities. It would be nice to see a brave journalist come up with the numbers and a good story! Until then, let's go after the bad guys but it's getting hard to tell who the good and the bad are!
Gotta be careful what I say! Don't want to get tasered or beat up for 200 bucks by the cops!

jp ex military..
its a easy fix.
just remove the gangs. the way the feds did in the 30's. no courts. just bang your dead. if your in a gang, any citizen should have the right to shoot you, soon no one would want to be in a gang, not healthy..
no criminal should have any rights, only the right to die.
but alas the goody to shoes of this world would never allow this.. SO LIVE WITH YOUR MEEK IDEAS, AND STOP COMPLAINING OR DO SOMETHING, CHANGE THE LAW.... I AM READY TOO CAST MY VOTE.. WHAT ABOUT YOU??????

Hannah
Gangs come from the "burbs" because these areas lack culture and life. There is nothing better for the kids to do in many of these suburban neighbourhoods. I am raising my child right in the heart of the city in order to keep him away from that lifestyle. Urban and City Planning all over this province needs to become more culturally diverse to help solve these issues in the future for our children and theirs.

This is, of course, only one aspect of a huge but I feel it is truly relevant and far too overlooked!

Mike
Had any of these losers actually stayed in school and tried working towards making an honest living, maybe they wouldn't be committing any crimes against other people, let alone facing their own mortality. You guys are all sick in the head. Stop acting like a bunch of idiots and get a life.

Wendy
GrewUpInLangley..You hit the nail on the head. My sentiments exactly!!!

Skye
I live about 8 blocks away from this...and from the shooting last week...and I work at a restaurant that is frequented by these lovely men. We have brawls breaking out in the middle of the day in the washrooms. And this is not a dive-bar restaurant.The girls know exactly who is who and what they are doing to afford that $350 Dom Perignon for a thursday lunch. You would be extremely surprised who these people are. For starters, if anybody has daughters in Langley, then your girls are dating these people. It is so terrifying because when we moved here, we had no idea! Everything looks so perfect and new!The reality is: How do you think a 23 year old can afford a Hummer and condo?!
oh the stories i can tell!

Richard Hughes
Umm what is that the gangs do to make money? Duh sell drugs.

Yup so we either quite the hypocritical crap and legalize drugs or we just continue making the criminals richer and more powerful. Simple. Too many people make money on its criminality. We are losing both sides of this war.

Adrian
I still don't get it. A few illegal businessmen settle their differences with guns and we all set our hair on fire. What is the big deal? you have a far greater chance of getting hit by a bus or winning the lottery than getting in the way of a stray bullet. I feel just as safe as ever and if these guys kill each other, so what?

deny
Gun control isn't helping ?These thuga ar getting their weapons of choice from across the border. As long as they keep killing each other that's great, live by the sword die by the sword.
How can the police guess where these guys are going to show up next, they are doing the best they can.

Billy K
How about sentencing accordint to the law! Without the "I'm so sorry judge my client was not aware of the penalties" or "your Honor, as per your sentencing record you have shown some leneancy on others please ignore the law and give my client the minimum sentence or fine as you do for others".

P.S. here is the link to the laws in Canada for guns

http://canada.justice.gc.ca/eng/news-nouv/fs-fi/2005/doc_31624.html

Seems to me it's pretty clear, I know I follow it because I don't want to go to jail!