Seven Shots Fired: a Downtown Vancouver Shooting
Photo Credit: Jordan Jiang/CTV News
On Mar. 30 at around 5:40 PM, witnesses heard seven shots ring out near the intersection of Robson and Richards streets. The target of these shots was Jagraj Atwal, a member of the Brothers Keepers.
The Brothers Keepers are a BC gang that has been known to be previously involved in such violence. They are a major supplier of opioids such as fentanyl in the Lower Mainland and BC.
Atwal was driving a black SUV and had an unidentified passenger in the car with him. Two gunmen wearing masks and heavy jackets came out of a white sedan a few cars away from Atwal’s. The suspect’s identities are still unknown and nobody has been arrested or detained.
Once shots were fired, the unknown passenger got out of the SUV and ran. The shooters then got into their car and drove away. Atwal escaped without a scratch.
The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) are currently investigating this shooting and have released very little information to the public. In a news release, they stated that, “Evidence indicates the shooting was targeted, but at this time there are no known injuries and no arrests have been made.”
No witnesses were hurt, but according to Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, a dog was injured. There was mass panic — 911 was called, people ran into IGA, and a witness was seen crying while being comforted by firefighters.
Mayor Ken Sim was on the scene and said to CTV News that “This is absolutely terrible. The fact that a couple of brazen individuals would do this with no regard for public safety, it’s disgusting.”
Former solicitor general and longtime Vancouver police officer, Kash Keed, believes that given the location of the shooting, the gunmen were most likely from out of town.
“These are hired guns who have no sense of the area that they are in and no regard for the safety of anyone in that area,” Keed said. “We haven’t seen a brazen public shooting in the downtown entertainment area like this for some time.”
This is not the only recent shooting involving a Brothers Keepers member. Four days earlier, a man was shot in Surrey around 10:44 PM. The Surrey RCMP said in a news release that “a male victim (was) suffering injuries consistent with having been shot.” The victim was not named, but Postmedia Network sources confirmed that it was Amandeep Kang, another Brothers Keeper gangster.
Last fall, Kang pleaded guilty to drug trafficking on behalf of a criminal organization. His case was scheduled to be back in court for sentencing a couple weeks ago.
It is not known whether the shootings are connected and who targeted them.