THE Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) says it is being deployed to Langley for a fatal shooting at the Langley Sportsplex.

The shooting occurred just after 9 a.m.

IHIT told the media that the victim was in his 40s and was very well known to police. The shooting was targeted.

A grey Dodge pickup truck found burning in the 1200-block of Riverside Drive in Port Coquitlam, beside Terry Fox Secondary School, is believed to be the getaway vehicle. The suspects are believed to have gone over the Golden Ears Bridge shortly after 9 a.m.

“If you have dash cam video … you may very well have footage of the shooter and perhaps those who are aiding and abetting them. It is so crucial that you call us immediately,” IHIT Sgt. Frank Jang told the media.

Police sources told The VOICE that this murder is not necessarily a retaliatory killing for the homicide of Harpreet Singh Dhaliwal, 31, of Abbotsford on April 17 in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour. The victim had been around for 20-plus years as a gangster. So this retaliation could have been for something that happened 20 years ago.

Dhaliwal’s murder, that of 20-year-old Bailey McKinney in Coquitlam on April 19, and today’s killing could spark retaliation though. “We know from previous years that all it takes is a couple of incidents for a significant amount of retribution to take place. We have seen that many, many times over the years,” police sources noted.

This year, things sort of calmed down after the first week of January. The number of gang homicides dropped dramatically. In fact, for about a six-week period they pretty much stopped. In March there were no murders. The gang homicide statistics are the same or below that of previous years.

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