Vancouver police have taken the unusual step of naming six alleged gang members after a series of shootings in public places, saying investigators don’t expect the gang conflict to subside.
Chief Const. Adam Palmer says his biggest concern is that a bystander will be hurt or killed during a gang-related shooting.
He says there have been 20 gang-related murders and 20 attempted murders in Metro Vancouver this year.
Palmer says police believe the six men may be targeted in the coming days, weeks or months.
Deadly shootings have recently happened outside restaurants, in shopping centre parking lots, on busy streets and in front of the departure terminal at Vancouver’s airport.
On Thursday, a man was killed and two others were hurt in a shooting in the parking lot of a busy shopping area in Burnaby.
Police said the victim, Jaskeert Kalkat, 23, and a man and a woman with him were all targets in the shooting.
Police identified 28-year-old Karman Grewal as the victim in the airport shooting. He was one of five men named by the RCMP as potential targets of shots-fired incidents in a 2017 news release.
