One person was killed and two others injured after yet another brazen shooting in Metro Vancouver, this time outside a Burnaby Cactus Club restaurant Thursday night.
On Friday, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) identified the victim as Jaskeert Kalkat, a 23-year-old who was affiliated with gang activity.
Kalkat’s criminal history includes assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon. In 2019 he was sentenced to probation and a firearms prohibition.
Two other people, a man and a woman, were also targeted in the shooting, IHIT said Friday. They suffered severe injuries but are expected to survive.
Several RCMP officers and other emergency responders convened at the Byrne Road Cactus Club in the Market Crossing shopping complex just off Marine Way after 8 p.m.
A body could be seen covered with a tarp next to a vehicle parked outside the restaurant. Over a dozen bullet holes could be seen littering the vehicle.
Video taken by witnesses showed first responders pulling the body of a young man from the same vehicle and laying him on the pavement.
Witnesses who spoke to Global News said they saw at least two victims get shot at in the parking lot in front of the restaurant. Those witnesses said one of the victims, the young woman, is a previous employee of the Cactus Club.
Robert Silayen, who was dining at the Cactus Club with his family, said staff told him and other diners to duck down when shots rang out.
“It was just like fireworks,” he told Global News. “We’re eating inside Cactus Club so we didn’t know what was going on until they told us to duck down.
“I’m not sure how many (shots), but it was a lot.”
The parking lot in front of the Cactus Club was closed off to the public for hours as police investigated.
Sgt. Frank Jang with IHIT said Friday that a burning vehicle was discovered in the 18500 block of 18 Ave. in Surrey just after 9 p.m.
Jang said the suspect vehicle, a white SUV, likely travelled from Burnaby to Surrey along Highway 91, Highway 99 and 16th Ave. and asked the public for dashcam footage from the area.
The shooting is the latest in a string of brazen acts of gunfire across Metro Vancouver in recent weeks, many of which have been fatal and linked to a wider gang conflict in the Lower Mainland.
Sgt. Frank Jang with IHIT had a stark warning for the people behind the recent spate of violence.
“We are coming after you,” he said. “We are coming after every single one of you.”
One of those shootings was also in Burnaby. A 19-year-old man, Toni Dalipi, was killed in a targeted shooting on May 3 that also saw an innocent bystander get hurt.
It also came just hours after the region’s top police chiefs met with Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth to discuss potential solutions to the growing wave of gang violence.
–With files from Jordan Armstrong