An officer stands near the windshield and passenger window of an RCMP vehicle with bullet holes at the scene of a shooting in Langley, British Columbia on Monday.
Darryl Dyck / Canadian Press via AP
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Darryl Dyck / Canadian Press via AP
An officer stands near the windshield and passenger window of an RCMP vehicle with bullet holes at the scene of a shooting in Langley, British Columbia on Monday.
Darryl Dyck / Canadian Press via AP
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – A gunman who wandered for hours through the sleeping Vancouver suburbs shot dead four people early Monday, two of them dead when he opened fire on a casino, entertainment center, and casino. to the homeless and other locations before being killed by police, authorities said.
The attacks began at midnight in Langley’s bedroom community and continued until dawn, according to authorities, who initially believed the shootings targeted homeless people.
The first shooting occurred at midnight at the casino, with more shootings at 3am, 5am and 5:45am – including at a residential complex providing assistance for people transitioning from homelessness. Police said other footage was of a bus stop and a highway.
Evidence of the riot throughout the night was scattered around Langley, including an overturned bicycle that spilled personal possessions onto the street and a cart with someone’s belongings.
Police sent a mobile phone alert to residents at 6:20 a.m., saying they were at the scene of several shootings “involving transient victims.”
Sgt. David Lee, a spokesman for homicide investigators, later told reporters that it was not clear whether the victims were homeless.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said an emergency response team confronted the suspect not far from the freeway, where a man was found with a gunshot to the leg.
That’s when officers shot and killed the gunman, said Ghalib Bhayani, the chief of police attachment.
Authorities do not know the motive behind the shooting or whether the shooter and the victim were known, Bhayani said.
He told reporters that the suspect’s death was being investigated by British Columbia’s Office of Independent Investigation, a police-led civilian watchdog.
In addition to the man with the leg wound, a woman was also injured and hospitalized in critical condition, police said.
The shooting rocked Langley, a town of 29,000 people about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Vancouver. The town has a wide range of shops and restaurants and boasts nearly 350 acres (142 ha) of parkland. Many residents have moved to Langley for cheaper housing and to Vancouver, British Columbia’s largest city.
Most of the shootings were in downtown Langley. One shooting was reported in the neighboring Town of Langley.
After the shooting began, ambulances and police cars gathered at a shopping mall. The area has been cordoned off with yellow police tape and a major intersection has been closed. A black tent was erected over one of the crime scenes. A murder group has confirmed on social media that their investigators have deployed to Langley to help.
An unmarked police SUV in one of the shots, near a bus depot, had at least seven bullet holes in the windshield and one through the driver’s window.
Mass shootings are less common in Canada than in the United States. The deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history occurred in 2020 when a man disguised as a police officer shot people in their home and set fires across Nova Scotia, killing 22 people.
The country overhauled gun control laws after an attacker killed 14 women and himself in 1989 at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique.
It is now illegal to possess an unregistered handgun or any other rapid-fire weapon in Canada. To purchase firearms, the country also requires training, a personal risk assessment, two references, spousal notice, and a criminal record check.
