Multiple homeless people have been shot and at least one has died in what appears to have been a series of attacks in Langley, a township near Vancouver, police in British Columbia said on Monday morning. A suspect was arrested within an hour of an alert going out to the public.
The warning issued in the city of Langley at 6:15am local time spoke of “multiple shooting scenes” and an “incident” near the neighboring Langley Township. The attacker, described as a white man wearing a green camouflage shirt and brown coveralls, was said to be targeting “transient victims.”
“We do have a male suspect in custody,” Sergeant Rebecca Parslow of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) told reporters. The suspect was arrested shortly before 7am, she added. The authorities are now investigating whether the suspected attacker acted alone.
Parslow did not specify the number of victims, saying only that there were “several.” Police believe this was a targeted attack on homeless people, she added. According to Canadian state media, at least one of the victims has died.
Langley and the eponymous township are located around 40km southeast of Vancouver, near the border with the US.