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Double shooting near Metrotown
One killed, one wounded in shocking daylight slaying
Jeremy Sandler
Vancouver Sun
Friday, June 28, 2002
Vancouver Sun
Burnaby RCMP officer investigates shooting scene in driveway of a Burnaby apartment building.
One man died and another was wounded Thursday in a double shooting in broad daylight outside a Burnaby apartment complex that shocked residents of the family neighbourhood one block from Metrotown.
The attack occurred around 1 p.m. as a car pulled in to the driveway of the Nelson Towers apartment buildings on Newton Street, just off Kingsway in Burnaby.
The injured man was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The blue Mazda 323 coupe in which the victims were travelling came to rest, licence plate askew, with its front bumper hooked on top of a curb in the apartments' parking lot.
Police cordoned off all of Newton Street with yellow police tape, but dozens of onlookers milled about behind the crime scene barrier and many more peered down out of windows and from balconies overlooking the crime scene as police, some with sniffing dogs, collected evidence.
Several children who are residents of the building milled about on the balcony of a ground floor suite about six metres from where the body -- for the most part covered by a yellow tarp but with one arm resting across the passenger seat of the coupe -- remained for several hours after the shooting.
Zohra Rate, 14, said she and her friends were watching the video of a graduation ceremony when she heard the shots.
"We thought kids were playing [with] fireworks," she said.
Police released very little information about the victims, refusing to give details of their ethnicity or even confirm that they were male, though the dead person was clearly a man.
Constable Phil Reid, spokes-man for Burnaby RCMP, said he could not say if the killing was gang-related or retaliation for any of the spate of recent shootings around Greater Vancouver in recent months.
"It's very early to say if this incident here has any connection to any of the other incidents in the Lower Mainland," Reid said, adding police would not rule out that possibility.
On Sunday morning, gangster Robbie Kandola was gunned down outside his West End apartment. That death was considered part of a long-running crime war involving Indo-Canadian gangs that has claimed 13 lives since last August.
More than 50 have been killed in the last decade, but few of the cases have been solved by police.
Reid added the area would be kept off-limits for several hours as police continued their investigation, which would be lengthy.
"There will be a lot of interviews being conducted because there's so much natural surveillance," Reid said.
Access to the lobby of the apartment building nearest to the shooting was severely restricted, with residents forced to use a back door away from the crime scene in front.
A tow truck arrived to remove the coupe and officers from the B.C. Coroner's service had to remove the dead man's seat belt before moving him on to a stretcher and into the coroner's van.
Mary Gracha, the owner of a deli with an outdoor patio across the street from the crime scene, said the close proximity of the shooting unnerved her.
"Yeah, it's scary it's so close," she said, although she did not see or hear any shots and only came out when the police arrived.
Elena Ballam, 18, and her 19-year-old boyfriend Joey Grande heard the shots from their apartment, which has a view of the scene.
"I just heard a loud bang," Ballam said. "I didn't really think much of it because there has been construction in an apartment below us."
Grande, too, did not at first recognize the sound as gunfire.
"I just thought she was hearing things," Grande said. "I just thought it was a car backfiring."
Bellam, who moved into the area at the beginning of June from Duncan on Vancouver Island, said she was afraid.
"That's really scary because we just moved here and we thought this was a safe neighbourhood," she said. "Scary, definitely scary. Not something you see where I come from. I just don't feel safe
While Johanna Wojtas, 74, a 15-year resident of the building said she still felt safe, Don Grimway, a 45-year-old letter carrier who lives two blocks away, lamented the intrusion of crime into the neighbourhood.
"It's not a quiet little city any more," he said.
Double shooting near Metrotown
One killed, one wounded in shocking daylight slaying
Jeremy Sandler
Vancouver Sun
Friday, June 28, 2002
Vancouver Sun
Burnaby RCMP officer investigates shooting scene in driveway of a Burnaby apartment building.
One man died and another was wounded Thursday in a double shooting in broad daylight outside a Burnaby apartment complex that shocked residents of the family neighbourhood one block from Metrotown.
The attack occurred around 1 p.m. as a car pulled in to the driveway of the Nelson Towers apartment buildings on Newton Street, just off Kingsway in Burnaby.
The injured man was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The blue Mazda 323 coupe in which the victims were travelling came to rest, licence plate askew, with its front bumper hooked on top of a curb in the apartments' parking lot.
Police cordoned off all of Newton Street with yellow police tape, but dozens of onlookers milled about behind the crime scene barrier and many more peered down out of windows and from balconies overlooking the crime scene as police, some with sniffing dogs, collected evidence.
Several children who are residents of the building milled about on the balcony of a ground floor suite about six metres from where the body -- for the most part covered by a yellow tarp but with one arm resting across the passenger seat of the coupe -- remained for several hours after the shooting.
Zohra Rate, 14, said she and her friends were watching the video of a graduation ceremony when she heard the shots.
"We thought kids were playing [with] fireworks," she said.
Police released very little information about the victims, refusing to give details of their ethnicity or even confirm that they were male, though the dead person was clearly a man.
Constable Phil Reid, spokes-man for Burnaby RCMP, said he could not say if the killing was gang-related or retaliation for any of the spate of recent shootings around Greater Vancouver in recent months.
"It's very early to say if this incident here has any connection to any of the other incidents in the Lower Mainland," Reid said, adding police would not rule out that possibility.
On Sunday morning, gangster Robbie Kandola was gunned down outside his West End apartment. That death was considered part of a long-running crime war involving Indo-Canadian gangs that has claimed 13 lives since last August.
More than 50 have been killed in the last decade, but few of the cases have been solved by police.
Reid added the area would be kept off-limits for several hours as police continued their investigation, which would be lengthy.
"There will be a lot of interviews being conducted because there's so much natural surveillance," Reid said.
Access to the lobby of the apartment building nearest to the shooting was severely restricted, with residents forced to use a back door away from the crime scene in front.
A tow truck arrived to remove the coupe and officers from the B.C. Coroner's service had to remove the dead man's seat belt before moving him on to a stretcher and into the coroner's van.
Mary Gracha, the owner of a deli with an outdoor patio across the street from the crime scene, said the close proximity of the shooting unnerved her.
"Yeah, it's scary it's so close," she said, although she did not see or hear any shots and only came out when the police arrived.
Elena Ballam, 18, and her 19-year-old boyfriend Joey Grande heard the shots from their apartment, which has a view of the scene.
"I just heard a loud bang," Ballam said. "I didn't really think much of it because there has been construction in an apartment below us."
Grande, too, did not at first recognize the sound as gunfire.
"I just thought she was hearing things," Grande said. "I just thought it was a car backfiring."
Bellam, who moved into the area at the beginning of June from Duncan on Vancouver Island, said she was afraid.
"That's really scary because we just moved here and we thought this was a safe neighbourhood," she said. "Scary, definitely scary. Not something you see where I come from. I just don't feel safe
While Johanna Wojtas, 74, a 15-year resident of the building said she still felt safe, Don Grimway, a 45-year-old letter carrier who lives two blocks away, lamented the intrusion of crime into the neighbourhood.
"It's not a quiet little city any more," he said.
