Another shooting rocked Vancouver on Tuesday, leaving one man dead and adding to a grim tally that includes a young mother gunned down Monday as she drove with her four-year-old son in the back seat.
The shooting took place on Fraser Street Tuesday afternoon, when two armed men burst into a home and confronted two brothers, one of whom wrestled with and killed an intruder, family members said.
Aleem Mohammed, 19, was wounded by the gunmen and was taken for medical treatment, while his brother Amir, 18, was in custody, said their sister, Nazreen Dean, who spoke to reporters at the scene.
“Those guys who came to our door, we don't know who they are,” said Ms. Dean, 43. “They might be a gang. And we're innocent people – my aunt lives there. I don't want them to come back here and start shooting.”Neither of her brothers was involved in gang activity, Ms. Dean said, saying the armed men were looking for someone the family doesn't know. Ms. Dean rushed to the home from work after getting a panicked called from her brother Amir.Police cars blocked the street in front of the house, and a body, the feet sticking out from beneath a white sheet, lay on the street as people walked by.Police said the dead man, whose name had not yet been released, was in his mid-20s. Police were looking for another suspect.
Aleem Mohammed's Facebook profile notes his love of video games, especially three online Facebook games called Mafia Wars, Mob Wars and Street Racing.The young man is also fond of Japanese, anime-style kung fu types of comics and cars, as is his brother Amir, whose Facebook photo is not a headshot but a sports car.
The daylight shooting took place just hours after police named Nicole Alemy as the victim of a Monday attack in Surrey, B.C., in which gunmen raked a white Cadillac with bullets.Ms. Alemy, who turned 23 on Valentine's Day, was killed. Her four-year-old son, who was in the back seat, was not physically harmed but has been placed in government care.As of Tuesday, police had not said whether Ms. Alemy's shooting was gang-related.Ms. Alemy is believed to have been married to Koshan Alemy. A person by that name was charged with three weapons-related offences in Coquitlam, B.C., in 2007, including possessing a firearm with an altered serial number, but those charges were stayed in 2008.Monday's shooting, which took place near a popular park, spooked nearby residents.“A lot of people don't realize the extent to which there are innocent victims,” Mr. Van Loan said.“There are innocent victims directly – people who have been killed who were bystanders, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But there are also innocent victims in the whole community – when people start changing their behaviour, where they drive, where they shop.“The culture of fear that is developing in some places and the extent that people talked about that – that surprised me.”B.C. last week announced it will hire 168 more police officers, take control of firearms regulations within its borders and boost rewards for tipsters to crank up the heat on gangs and guns.