WATCH: An Abbotsford family is in mourning tonight after their grandfather, an innocent bystander, was shot to death in a targeted shooting. Rumina Daya reports.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) is looking into the death of a 74-year-old Abbotsford man on Wednesday night.
Sgt. Jennifer Pound with the IHIT says he was a family man who leaves behind many grieving family members, “a true victim,” she says. She did not identify the man at this time.
Abbotsford Police went to the 3500-block of Promontory Court around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday after receiving reports of shots fired.
WATCH: The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team held a press conference Thursday to update the media on the death of a 74-year-old Abbotsford bystander
They arrived to find a vehicle in a driveway with what appeared to be bullet holes and a man located outside a nearby home suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I would like to state definitively that we believe there was a targeted shooting in the driveway, and that this 74-year-old was an innocent victim who happened to be at the fence line, probably not even visible from the roadway,” Cst. Ian MacDonald with Abbotsford police told Global News.
Police say the investigation is being handed over to IHIT.
Pound says what happened in Abbotsford Wednesday night proves how fast this violence is escalating. She wants parents to come forward with any information about their children who have been involved in recent violence in Abbotsford.
“We need people in the community to step up, we need parents to step up,” adds MacDonald. “No more stonewalling, no more silence.”
He says the people involved are not gang members, but people ages 15 to 25 with lots of drug issues. Police are concerned young people are being pulled into the conflict on either side and more are becoming involved.
Pound says witnesses have come forward with information about a dark SUV seen leaving the area.
Henry Zukowski, a teacher who lives up the street, said surveillance cameras haven’t deterred gang activity that has been a problem for at least a year.
He called on the city to hold a forum so residents can voice their concerns.
“Nobody should feel threatened and, you know, be subjected to this kind of behaviour, to lose a loved one, right, an innocent bystander,” Zukowski said. “The city obviously hasn’t done enough to protect us and police. I mean they can only do so much right?”
Eileen Mohan, whose son Chris was shot and killed in a Surrey apartment in 2007 as an innocent victim in the ‘Surrey Six’ slayings, says Revenue Canada should look hard at the income of the gangster and his family.
“We need to put our focus on families and follow the revenue where the money is coming from, to actually put a stop to this carnage,” she said.
WATCH: The 74-year-old victim of the Abbotsford shooting isn’t the first person to lose his life to gangland violence. John Daly reports.
Comments