Police are investigating after a home in Surrey was the target of gunfire shortly after midnight Wednesday.
The Surrey Police Service (SPS) says it responded to a residence on 87A Avenue near 134 Street around 12:40 a.m.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!“At this time, we do believe the shots fired is extortion related and we’re asking anyone who may have been in the area at the time, if you were driving and especially if you have dash cam footage, please contact police,“ said Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton.
Police believe the shooting is related to a wave of extortion south of the Fraser River.
“Our Extortion Response team has taken over the lead investigation. We have officers there today and members of the Integrated Forensic Identification Team will be on scene collecting and analyzing any digital or physical evidence,” said Houghton.
“As of Monday this week, we’ve had 87 reported extortions and 15 extortion related shots fired. And this morning shots fired would make that now 16.”
Houghton has said that people should not respond to the extortion demands by paying the offenders money.
“We want people to phone the police because we want to be able to investigate things because the more people that pay, the more these individuals and these groups are enabled to keep doing this.”
“The more people that pay, the more the criminals think they can get away with it and the more victims there will be. Their currency is fear and they want people to be afraid. They don’t want people to phone the police,” said Houghton. “The last person or the last people they want potential victims to call is the police because they don’t want to be investigated.”
Earlier this month, Chief Norm Lipinski boasted seeing a “meaningful decline” in reported extortion threats and extortion-related shots fired.
In the first month of the year, the SPS recorded 44 threats and 10 extortion-related shootings. By March, the number had dropped to 14 and three, respectively.
Anyone with information about Wednesday morning’s shooting is asked to contact the SPS’s non-emergency line at 604-599-0502 and quote file number 26-38195 (SP) or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
