The body of Hark Hans, a 28-year-old Indo-Canadian man from Surrey, was found lying partly inside a white Honda on Wednesday night in the parking lot of the Eaglequest Coyote Creek Golf Course.Surrey RCMP Sgt. Roger Morrow said police were "aware" of Hans, but could not say if there was a connection to other recent shootings or to the drug trade."Investigators cannot confirm any involvement in the drug trade or affiliation with any gang," said Morrow.It was the 11th targeted killing this year in the Lower Mainland, according to statistics compiled by The Province.The shooting could have put innocent bystanders at risk of being injured, Morrow noted. Golfers were practising at the nearby driving range and diners were in the course's restaurant at the time.Oppal called the shooting "alarming," but pointed out that killings related to the drug trade in Metro Vancouver are not a recent phenomenon.
"It indicates how evil this whole underworld is, where people end up killing each other all for money and drugs and all the rest of it," he said.
While police generally have success in solving murders that are crimes of passion,gangland slayings are not as easy to crack, said Oppal.
"These crimes are not like ordinary crimes, where you have victims who come forward to the authorities and ask for help," he said.
"[Among drug gangs] the victims exact their own justice. They have their own justice system, and they take care of their own," said Oppal.
In total, there have been 18 murders across the Lower Mainland this year.
"Eighteen [murders], it's an extraordinary year," said RCMP Cpl. Dale Carr of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT).
"We need people to stop killing each other."
IHIT is responsible for investigating murders from Boston Bar to Pemberton, including all RCMP and municipal police departments except for Vancouver, West Vancouver and Delta.
He called IHIT "a very effective, very highly motivated unit," and rebutted criticism of its success rate.Carr noted a four-year-old murder case in Richmond was cracked this week and a Malaysian man accused of it is being extradited from Belgium to stand trial. He added that nearly half of the files that IHIT have handled since last May were solved. A man shot to death in a semi-rural area of northeast Coquitlam last week has been identified as Alfred "Fred" Walcott, 22.
Walcott pounded on the door of a house on Mason Avenue shortly after midnight on March 12, then collapsed and died on the doorstep.