SURREY — Police investigated Surrey’s first shooting of the year early Thursday morning in Cloverdale.
Surrey Mounties were called to the 17400-block of 64th Avenue on a report of shots fired at about 3:30 a.m.
Police said a man was taken to hospital with serious injuries that are not considered to be life-threatening. At press time there was no description of the suspects, who took off in a vehicle before police got there.
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Police believe it was “targeted” but said Thursday morning it’s too early to say it was related to drugs or other shootings.
A witness at the scene said the victim’s vehicle crashed into a pole in near the Shell gas station after being shot at. A white BMW that was towed away appeared to have a bullet hole near the driver’s side door frame, the witness said.
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According to one Chevron gas station attendant, who didn’t want to give her name, Surrey RCMP was on scene before she arrived for work at 5:30 a.m. Thursday. They were investigating an “accident” across the street.
She said that she thought it had been a car accident, and only learned that it may have been a shooting by reading news reports online.
“I’m thinking maybe the shooting happened, and [it] caused the accident,” she said, shrugging. “Apparently the [driver] was taken to the hospital with injuries.”An interactive timeline of shootings in Surrey dating back to 2014Man charged in Dec. 23 shooting in Surrey
There were 59 shootings in Surrey during 2017, compared to 61 in 2016 and 88 in 2015.
In November, Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was in Surrey to announce at the B.C. RCMP (E Division) headquarters on Green Timbers Way that the Canadian government will spend $327.6 million over five years – and $100 million every year after that – to fight gun violence and gang-related crime.
“Too many young people have been killed and too many communities have been marred by gun crime and gun violence,” Goodale said. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
With file from Samantha Anderson
