While Citizens Are Up In Arms And Organizing Anti-Gang Seminars – Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner Says City Is Safe!
The RCMP said Ravinder Samra was injured early in the bloody conflict, which began in March, with the latest injury being last Saturday night during a gunfight on Highway 10. Despite being shot twice in the last few months, Samra is still refusing to cooperate with police.
SURREY – On successive days last weekend, Surrey saw gangland shootings, making 36 in total, the latest injuring a 28-year-old Indo-Canadian man who’s been shot twice in the ongoing so-called drug turf war being waged on the streets of Surrey.
The RCMP said Ravinder Samra was injured early in the bloody conflict, which began in March, with the latest injury being last Saturday night during a gunfight on Highway 10. Despite being shot twice in the last few months, Samra is still refusing to cooperate with police.
Samra and another man suffered non-life threatening injuries in the latest shooting, which investigators believe is linked to at least 17 other incidents of gun violence committed in recent months, reported CTV News.
Both victims are refusing to cooperate with police, a problem the RCMP has highlighted as a major impediment to ending the violence.
But Surrey mayor Linda Hepner doesn’t see the shooting and gun violence as just an “anomaly issue.”
“I don’t think you see this kind of constant turf war going on for these many months,” she said. “So I consider this city safe, but I consider this issue to be top of mind for every single politician and police officer.
“I am going to stand by my safe city, but a safe city in need of resolving this very significant, intolerable issue.”
“We’re doing what we can,” Hepner told the reporters. “We have made significant progress since March, and we are not loosening the grip on this issue. Today is an example of how we’re standing strong and together to make sure that that grip is not loosened and the public understands that.”
On Monday, police released surveillance images of Samra taken at a Cactus Club in Langley shortly before Saturday’s gunfight.
“In order to advance this particular investigation, police are releasing a photo of one of the victims,” the RCMP said in a statement. “We are hoping that anyone who was at the Langley Cactus Club and may have information relating to [Samra] could give police a call.”
A light-coloured SUV connected to the shooting has been seized, but Mounties are still trying to track down a silver Pontiac Vibe that was seen fleeing the area.
According to the Vancouver Sun, a man with the same name and age as Ravinder Samra was convicted in 2007 of driving while prohibited and got a day in jail on top of 14 days served. In November 2011, he was convicted of using an imitation firearm and being unlawfully inside a house. He got five months in jail. He was convicted of assault with a weapon in June 2011 and got 30 days in jail.
In November 2011, he was convicted of using an imitation firearm and being unlawfully inside a house. He got five months in jail, reported the Vancouver Sun.
Mounties are also still working to identify suspects in a brazen shooting committed last week outside an Earls restaurant in Surrey. The RCMP said it’s seeking warrants to obtain surveillance video from the area that could aid in the investigation.
Following the latest two shootings, Hepner and two senior police officers, including the newly promoted Indo-Canadian Surrey RCMP Superintendent Manny Mann called an urgent press conference outside Canada’s biggest RCMP detachment on Monday afternoon to give an update about this ongoing menace.
Police told the media that they believe 18 of the shootings are linked to a war over dial-a-dope drug turf in Surrey and North Delta.
“As we investigate, gather further forensic evidence and information, that number may increase,” Surrey RCMP Superintendent Manny Mann said.
Inspector Joanne Boyle, team leader of investigations, Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, outlined the police’s theory.
“I believe this was an attempted takeover by one group from a group that already had a stronghold in that Newton area and it’s unfortunately a very lucrative drug trade out there, not just in Newton, but in all areas, and there was an attempt to take that over and a push to let it be known that the dialers that were there needed to find elsewhere to work,” Boyle said. “This is not a gang, these are dial-a-dopers.”
The politicians and police say they are doing all they can to stop this violence, but one wonders how long the city has before these ongoing shootings cement Surrey’s reputation as Inglewood North.
Mann said that since the violence began in March seven people allegedly related to the conflict have been arrested and charged with 50 drug and firearms-related crimes.
Moreover, police have checked more than 1,600 people and 1,360 vehicles to date. Of those vehicles, 36 have been seized as crime-related property. Boyle said the government might also seize homes.
“Residences could as well be seized as a result of this conflict. So I think that parents and willing participants in this conflict need to be alert to that fact.”
Eight firearms have also been seized and police are awaiting the results of ballistics tests, which should be ready in coming weeks, to find out if any of those guns were used in the shootings.
Mann added police have also laid 262 charges “independent of the conflict,” resulting from the investigations.
“Significant resources get deployed on a daily basis in that Newton area,” he said.
But suspects and victims are snubbing police. So are families of those alleged to be involved in the drug feud, and even some businesses.
Boyle said police recently executed a search warrant on the family home of a young man believed to be involved in the conflict and found his bedroom walls, which face the street, had been fortified with plywood and ceramic tiles, reported Surrey Now newspaper.
“It appears that this family had taken measures to safeguard their son,” she noted.
Boyle said she personally spoke with the mother of another young man allegedly “entrenched in the drug trade and this conflict.”
“I attended the family home,” she recalled. “The mother refused to open the door to me and through a translator she told me that she was embarrassed to have the police at her home and asked me not to return.”
In another case, Boyle said, police officers were stymied while trying to interview a victim of a recent shooting. They showed him some pictures from a security camera, she said. “While not denying that the photos were of himself, clearly visible from the unique tattoos that he had on his arms, he adamantly denied being there that night.
“These are three of many stories that represent the hurdles our investigators are continually facing. Despite these, we remain unified and committed to both the community and our investigation.”
Mann noted that investigators have also encountered “very uncooperative businesses” while trying to obtain security surveillance footage.
“Police have encountered some businesses not willing to turn over video,” he said. As a result, police had to secure warrants, which delayed their investigation.
Mann would not name the businesses. Asked what he makes of their reluctance to co-operate with police, he replied, “I suppose some of the businesses, their own legal parameters, they have that policy inside.”
Hepner’s idea of putting an end to shootings is another one of her bad thinking out loud and not-ready-to-be-mayor ideas. She wants gangsters to pay their own hospital bills rather than be cared for at the taxpayers’ expense.
With a mayor like that – we are all in big trouble in Surrey!
