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CTV News has obtained video of a targeted shooting that shocked bystanders in a busy area of downtown Vancouver Saturday evening.
Miraculously, no people were hurt when two gunmen opened fire at close range at a car on Robson and Richards streets around 5:40 p.m. However, police said two dogs that were in the vehicle with the target were injured.
The surveillance video shows two masked men exiting a white car, then running toward a black vehicle and firing bullets at it. The black car then drives forward, crashes into another white vehicle and stops. A man gets out of the targeted car and runs away while the shooters keep firing at him. The gunmen then run back to the white car and drive away.
A witness told CTV News bystanders in the busy shopping district were frozen in fear as the violence unfolded.
No arrests have been made yet.
“It’s a miracle that no one was injured; it’s a miracle that nobody was killed,” Vancouver Police Department Sgt. Steve Addison told reporters in a briefing on Sunday, acknowledging the video as “chilling” to watch. “We had people running for cover, we had people literally running for their lives.”
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim told CTV News he was on his way to a concert when he learned about the shooting, and stopped at the scene to be briefed by police.
“This is absolutely terrible. The fact that a couple of brazen individuals would do this with no regard for public safety, it’s disgusting,” Sim said.
“The people who did this are going to be held accountable,” he added.
Addison said investigators have identified the target and that he’s allegedly involved in gang activity.
He said police are bracing for a “retaliatory incident” in the near future as they expect the violence to follow the pattern of similar Lower Mainland gang shootings.
With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Penny Daflos and Andrew Weichel
