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Vancouver police appeal for witnesses after two targeted shootings Sunday morning

Five people have been shot in Vancouver in the past week
shootings
Vancouver police responded to a pair of targeted shootings within four hours of one another on Sunday morning.

Vancouver police are investigating a pair of targeted shootings that happened within four hours of one another Sunday morning.

The first shooting occurred around midnight near Kingsway and Gladstone Street, when a 44-year-old Vancouver man was shot multiple times outside the New Mandarin Seafood Restaurant.

By 4:30 a.m. Sunday, a second man was shot in the Downtown Eastside near East Hastings and Heatley Avenue. He’s been identified as a 35-year-old Surrey resident.

The two victims were in hospital as of Monday morning with serious injuries.

“Both of these people are known to the police. We have had dealings with them in the past,” Vancouver Police Department media spokesperson Sgt. Aaron Roed told the Courier Monday morning.

There have been five shootings in Vancouver over the past week, four of which happened in the Downtown Eastside.

The first two shootings happened on Sept. 22 within two hours of one another — one just before 4 p.m., near East Hastings Street and Dunlevy Avenue and the second around 6 p.m. in the area of East Pender and Abbott streets — followed by the Sept. 23  incident at the Grand Union Hotel at 6:30 a.m.

Three arrests have since been made in relation to two of those shootings.

A targeted shooting death happened in Surrey around 6 p.m. on Saturday night, hours before the two incidents in Vancouver.

“We’re not correlating if the two are related to any other shootings,” Roed said.

No information has been provided around suspect descriptions. Roed wouldn’t say if the suspects fled in a vehicle or on foot in either instance.

Deputy Chief Howard Chow told reporters last week that a turf war is brewing in the Downtown Eastside that’s pitting new gangs against old players. Both groups are preying upon those who remain in tents at Oppenheimer Park.

Roed stopped short of suggesting Sunday’s shootings were linked to the criminal element operating near Oppenheimer.

“We’re not linking them to any specific gang due to the ongoing investigation,” he said. “We also don’t believe these are related to the ongoing gang conflict in the Downtown Eastside.” 

Anyone with information about Sunday’s shootings is asked to call the Vancouver Police Major Crime Section at 604-717-2541 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

@JohnKurucz