Fresh off the Press

Recently there have been multiple gang-related murders and shootings plaguing the Vancouver, BC metro area. According to sources, there have been 11 homicides in Metro Vancouver since 09. In fact, February brought a reign of terror in the streets with 6 shootings taking place in 6 days resulting in 4 deaths. All together, February has brought about 18 shootings total in BC!

The following is an exert from BC news reports on events between Feb. 2 and Feb. 8th:

The carnage began when James Erickson, 25, was found murdered in an apartment in the Whalley neighbourhood in Surrey. Erickson is well known to police.

On Feb 3. Raphael Baldini was shot to death as he sat in a luxury SUV outside a Surrey mall. The 21-year-old held the lease on a Surrey apartment where six people -- two of them innocent bystanders -- were killed in October 2007.

The same day Baldini was killed, Brianna Kinnear, 21, who had escaped from jail while serving time for drug trafficking, was found shot to death in a car in suburban Coquitlam.

Then on Friday, 26-year-old Kevin Robert LeClair was shot in his truck at a grocery store in Langley. He died from his injuries this weekend.

On Sunday outside a grocery store near West Broadway and Arbutus St. in Vancouver's west side another shooting take place. The suspect fled on foot and at least one report suggests the victim has gang ties.

-On Feb. 22, hundreds of citizens took to the streets of Vancouver in protesting the gang violence hoping to also push the government to enforce stricter laws. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announced a plan to crack down on an unprecedented wave of gang-related murders as the city prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Canada's public safety minister even called the gang violence the worst in the country, and British Columbia this week appointed an organized crime czar to oversee gang, drug and gun violence issues.

The shootings have taken place in Kitsalano (yuppy-land), Langley, Surrey, and downtown Vancouver.
BC is under fire!!