On Saturday evening, the latest Surrey shooting took place — and it wasn’t too far from Langley.
Shots were fired from one or more vehicles in the 18600 block of Highway 10 on Saturday evening, at about 10 p.m. Two men were likely injured — they later appeard at a hospital.
The shots also damaged at least two nearby homes. Highway 10 was closed for several hours to allow police to investigate.
Unfortunately, when shooting and gangland warfare breaks out in Surrey, it often has a spillover effect in Langley.
We saw this with the series of gangland shootings in 2009. There was the brazen murder of Bacon brothers’ associate Kevin LeClair in a Walnut Grove parking lot, and there were two other murders and other assaults related to warfare over drug turf.
Thus far, there has been just one murder out of almost 40 shootings in Surrey and Delta. The majority seem to be drive-by shootings, with gun-toting crooks taking shots at a house, vehicle or people. However, shooting from a moving vehicle tends to be notoriously off-target, despite all the TV show and movies that show otherwise.
There was a serious shooting in the Fernridge area of Langley on Thursday. One man was badly wounded, but thus far remains alive in hospital. It is unclear if this shooting was related to a drug turf war.
Langley residents like to think that theylive in a peaceful community. For the most part, that’s true. However, Langley is also part of Metro Vancouver and is situated between Abbotsford and Surrey. Both communities have had more than their share of people involved in making large sums of money from dealing in drugs.
In addition, Langley has many secluded rural properties owned by investors. Some are rented to people with less-than-stellar reputations, often because they are willing to pay high rents — all in cash.
There are also a number of low-level drug dealers in Langley, both City and Township.
Add it all together and there is almost certainly going to be some trouble.
There is little that can be done to completely prevent such incidents from occurring. However, a few precautions can make them less frequent.
One is for landlords to thoroughly check out the backgrounds and reputations of those willing to rent homes from them — particularly when they are in secluded, rural areas and the prospective tenants do not seem to have regular jobs.
Another is for citizens to be observant of what’s going on in their neighbourhoods. Police don’t mind taking calls that may not seem that important to citizens. Such tips often can lead to more substantial information, and in some cases, arrests and charges.
It also makes sense to warn young people of the danger of selling drugs for others. The money may sound good — the lifestyle comes with a very high mortality rate.
This community does not belong to bad guys roaming around in fancy cars, while waving illegal handguns. It belongs to law-abiding citizens. There are tools we can use to keep it from becoming a gangsters’ playground.