Vancouver is a safe city.
That was the message from police Chief Adam Palmer Monday afternoon following Saturday’s brazen shooting that left two people dead, including an innocent 15-year-old boy who happened to be driving by in a car with his parents when gunfire erupted on Broadway near Ontario Street.
“I still think Vancouver is a safe city and this is an anomaly in the sense that it’s been many, many years since we’ve had a shooting like this in Vancouver where an innocent person has been hit,” Palmer said Monday at a press conference.
“We do have shootings like this in Vancouver where people are shot on occasion and it’s always a concern but Vancouver is still a safe place for people to go about day-to-day life.”
It was just after 9 p.m. Saturday when shots rang out in the busy area. According to police, Kevin Whiteside, 23, and at least one other person exchanged gunfire. Whiteside, who is known to police, was hit and later died in hospital.
The 15-year-old, identified as Alfred Wong from Coquitlam, was on life support but died Monday. A third person, a Vancouver man in his 30s, sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
“My heart goes out the family of the 15-year-old boy,” Palmer said. “They were having a normal Saturday night evening out with family and now they are grieving for their son.
“My message to the family is this, we will not ever be able to fully comprehend your grief but the Vancouver police department will do whatever it takes to seek justice for your son.”
“I’m deeply saddened to hear that the young boy—an innocent passer-by in Saturday’s shooting — has died,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said on Twitter Monday. “My heart goes out to his family & friends in this dark time & I offer my deepest condolences for their loss.”
Palmer said more than 50 Vancouver police officers have been devoted to the investigation and have already made “significant progress.”
Whiteside was known to police and had been arrested and charged for crimes in Vancouver, Burnaby and Delta dating back to 2013.
According to court records, he had multiple convictions including ones for possession for the purpose of trafficking, assault with a weapon, breaking and entering, and possessing a firearm while prohibited. He was subject to a lifetime firearms ban.
The Courier reached out to Whiteside's family but did not receive a response before deadline.
In a statement to CBC News, the family said there was more to Whiteside than his criminal history.
"Kevin was a young man with an enormous heart, he loved his family he loved his friends. He would give you his last $20 if you needed it," his mother, Kyra Clark, said in a statement issued to CBC through a friend.
"A true kind soul to friends always there for them, he would give you his shirt off his back if you asked. He was kind and funny and always one you could count on."
She told CBC her family is struggling and feels great sorrow for Wong's family.
"We are a good family who also can not comprehend this type of activity," she said.
On Monday, Palmer had a strong message for gangs in the city.
“Our message to gangs, and it’s a similar message that we’ve had in Vancouver for a long time, is that we go after gangs aggressively in Vancouver,” he said. “That has been our focus for many years. We are targeting gangs as we speak and there’s been several major projects just in the last couple of months that we’ve reported to you where we’ve arrested gang members with firearms and fentanyl and for all kinds of violent offenses and we’re continuing to target gang members and when they engage in this type of activity in the city we’re going to come after them aggressively.”
There have been a number of shootings in the city in recent months that police believe were targeted.
Since May there have been nine separate incidents reported by police where shots were fired that were deemed to be targeted. In most of the cases no one was injured, however, a case earlier this month saw two men in their 20s injured after being shot in a parking lot in an industrial area in the city’s south end. And in May 33-year-old Janice Nicole Bryant was killed in what police described as a targeted shooting.
Last year there were a total of 31 confirmed incidents of shots fired in the city. That’s up from 26 in 2016 and 11 in 2015. Overall, however, the number of shootings in Vancouver is down significantly over previous years — there were 93 in 2004, 95 in 2005, 83 in 2006 and 68 in 2007.
Robillard said Saturday’s shooting does not appear to be linked to any other recent shootings in the city.
@JessicaEKerr
