Harpreet Singh Chahal, 25, was critically wounded in a targeted shooting on South Fraser Way at Emerson about 5:15 p.m. Sunday and died less than an hour later in hospital.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team confirmed Monday that Chahal was well-known to them and that the murder is gang-related.

Harpreet Chahal was a close associate of Jujhar Khun-Khun, a gangster who has survived two attempts on his own life.

Other occupants of Chahal’s vehicle fled the scene, but have since been identified and it was confirmed they were uninjured, Pound said.

Chahal, 25, was shot and killed while driving his black Mercedes near Emerson Street and South Fraser Way. He was fatally wounded shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday near the West Oaks Shopping Centre, and died in hospital.

“This shooting occurred in a very public area where innocent people could have easily become victims,” said Sgt. Jennifer Pound of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. “We are urging anyone with information to come forward and speak with investigators.”

Witnesses told police that the shots came from a light-coloured vehicle that fled the scene shortly after the trigger was pulled.

Both the victim and the suspect car were travelling westbound on South Fraser Way when the shots were fired.

Anyone with information is asked to call the IHIT tipline at 1-877-551-4448 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Chahal and Khun-Khun faced a raft of charges in the 2006 kidnapping and robbery of a truck driver.

Surrey Provincial Court Judge Jean Lytwyn, calling the kidnapping a “random, brazen act of violence,” sentenced the co-accused to three years for their part in the crime.

The court heard that Chahal and Khun-Khun confronted the driver with replica guns, identifying themselves as law enforcement officers as they handcuffed him and put him in their car. The pair drove around Surrey before finally releasing him with a warning “not to phone the police and not to identify the participants.”

Khun-Khun has since survived two attempts on his life, and was one of three men charged with the 2011 murder of gangster Jonathan Bacon – the beginning of what police have described as a “cascade of violence” with multiple gang murders and attempted murders including Sunday’s fatal takedown of Chahal.