Mayor Linda Hepner is getting ”furious" with the rising violent incidents as another round of targeted shooting hits Surrey on Tuesday night.
RCMP was called to a home in the 7700-block of 155th Street around 11 p.m. to find an injured minor who suffered bullet wounds. No arrests were made and cops are looking for a dark-coloured SUV that was seen fleeing the area around 11:10 p.m.
Neighbours heard 3 or 4 Shots around 11 pm. Area flooded with police. Teen that was shot is in stable condition. pic.twitter.com/1hSEbWo5Mh
— Sheila Scott (@Sheila_Scott) April 6, 2016
It's the 32nd shooting this year.
RCMP S. Sgt. Murray Henderson said “Officers are and will be conducting neighbourhood canvassing and speaking with witnesses to obtain further information. The investigation is still in its early stages, but initial indications are that this is a targeted incident.”
Police have confirmed the victim in Surrey's latest shooting is a minor -- so under 18-years-old. He is in stable condition.
— Sheila Scott (@Sheila_Scott) April 6, 2016
Mayor Linda Hepner is clearly upset as she spoke out about the rise in shootings in her city on Tuesday but believes the police investigation will shut down the violence in the next few weeks.
“I am so angry that this is happening again in my city," she told media. "To be dealing with this again is unacceptable."
"I want to call them punks," she said about men she feels are holding her city hostage.
She said the vast majority of both the perpetrators and targets of the shootings have been young males of South Asian descent.
Hepner also said that fact — along with the relatively young overall population of the city — makes Surrey especially vulnerable to gun violence, but that her city is not alone.
"That is the cycle," she said.
"You create the void and somebody chooses to fill it. When you take four and a half million dollars of drugs off the street — and that's what we did most recently — then you are faced with obvious criminal reciprocity as well."
Addressing the criminals directly, Mayor reiterated that her city is not the place to safely conduct their business.
"Whatever it is you think you're doing, there is no fairytale ending to this. This is going to end with prison or a toe tag," Hepner said. "Get your butt home, do the hard work it takes to be successful and get the hell out of my city."
Surrey RCMP Community Services Supt. Shawn Gill said the drug trade in the city is constantly changing, but the problem remains the same: Young people lured into gangs and a criminal lifestyle “with illusions of money and power. We need a strategic long term approach to the violence is needed”
He also said that the violence is disturbing, but the public isn’t at risk and criminals are hurting other criminals.
