Canadian police are looking for a suspect or suspects after one person was shot dead in broad daylight outside the main terminal of Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia.
“A man was shot and killed this afternoon near the domestic departure terminal [of Vancouver International Airport]. Media availability later this evening in Richmond,” the Canadian Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) tweeted on Sunday.
Also on rt.com New York police ID suspect in Times Square shooting, say he meant to shoot his brother when 4yo girl & two women were hitThe statement followed reports of police and paramedics responding to a shooting incident at the airport. It was soon announced that the situation had been contained.
Airport officials confirmed that the facility was “open and safe,” and that flights were operating.
However, while the scene was pronounced no longer active, the shooting suspect or suspects have apparently managed to escape police, with reports saying they fired shots at officers as their vehicle sped away.
Local media has been posting images of a burnt-out vehicle in Surrey, which they said was believed to be the suspects’ getaway car.
Media speculation suggested that Sunday’s incident was gang-related, with reports claiming that the shooting victim was a “gang member.”
Gang violence has been on the rise in the Metro Vancouver area, with another highly publicized local incident described just a few posts down on the IHIT Twitter page. A 22-year-old woman named Shana Harris was shot and killed in Surrey in February, and police said in April they believed she was “the unintended victim of a targeted shooting” and not involved with a gang herself.
Canadian police have previously said there had been 15 gang-related killings across Metro Vancouver since the start of 2021.
“New groups have entered into the gang landscape that has resulted in more conflict,” Assistant Commissioner Manny Mann, chief officer of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, told media in late April.
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