When speaking of gang shootings, authorities are quick to describe them as "targeted" – a usually unspoken assurance the general public is not in danger. But with the recent murder of Gurbinder "Bin" Singh Toor on Thursday, Vancouver police Constable Lindsey Houghton didn't sugar coat the very real risk innocent lives are at.
Mr. Toor, 35, of Squamish, was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Port Moody Recreation Centre around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, as he exited his car to play ball hockey. He had a long criminal history and was affiliated with the Dhak-Duhre gang, whose leader was shot in the head inside a downtown Vancouver hotel restaurant in January.
"It's an extremely busy recreation centre, all day and into the evening," Const. Houghton said. "This is a brazen shooting in a very public place and it's disturbing to us.
"Whether it's the parking lot of a busy recreation centre or downtown in the cafe of a busy hotel, those incidents put the public at risk."
Mr. Toor was taken to hospital but died shortly after midnight. Police are now looking for a dark-coloured SUV that was reportedly seen speeding off.
The death is the latest in a continuing gang war in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
On Jan. 17, Sandip "Dip" Duhre was shot to death while he sat in the Cafe One restaurant inside Vancouver's Sheraton Wall Centre hotel. In October 2011, Gurmit Singh Dhak was shot to death in the parking lot of Burnaby's Metrotown mall.
Police said then that Dhak's death had heightened gang tensions in the region.
Andrea Woo