Police ask for help after ‘brazen’ dinnertime shooting that claimed 4th victim

Metro Vancouver from the air  (Photo: Ruth Hartnup/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

LANGLEY, B.C. — Police believe the victims in a series of Metro Vancouver shootings were targeted and at least one attack involving drugs and gangs put the public at risk.

Four people have died in the region this week, including a man and woman who were killed at about 5:30 a.m. Friday in a rural area of Langley, about 50 kilometres east of Vancouver.

About 12 hours earlier, an 18-year-old man identified as Sehajdeep Sidhu was shot to death in the Fraser Valley community of Abbotsford.

Cpl. Frank Jang of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said a 17-year-old boy and a man survived the brazen shooting in the quiet residential neighbourhood in Abbotsford around dinnertime.

“This incident showed a blatant disregard for the safety of the public,” he told a news conference.

“For the people who are fearful in their communities, this is our community, this is their community. They should not have to live in fear of this. They should not be tolerant of this type of behaviour.”

Sidhu did not have a criminal record but was known to police, police said in a statement.

“It appears there was a suspect vehicle that fled the scene after shooting at Mr. Sidhu,” the statement says, adding a black Nissan Pathfinder was found in Langley, about 30 minutes after the shooting.

The survivors of the shooting in Abbotsford were not at the scene when investigators arrived and found Sidhu dead, but they knew him, Jang said.

“These are young people in the crossfires,” he said. “It’s a reminder that people in that lifestyle are in harm’s way and they need to get out of that lifestyle.”

Jang said investigators have spoken with “persons of interest” but anyone with information should call police.

Police have not linked the Abbotsford attack with the one in Langley.

On Tuesday, 20-year-old Pardeep Singh was shot in the driveway of his home in Surrey. Homicide investigators said Singh was the target of a previous shooting.