By Greg Fry

Property owner of notorious North Shore home says he’s ‘sorry’, promises things will improve

Nov 28, 2017 | 2:22 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s a Kamloops address known for all the wrong reasons and its owner is promising changes are coming.

Brandan Shankar owns the home at 217 Nelson Avenue, the location of a shooting that injured two people last month. The shooting shook area residents to the core and prompted Kamloops City Council to pass the ‘Good Neighbour’ bylaw.

The bylaw went into effect November 21 and charges landlords of nuisance properties the costs for RCMP and fire rescue to attend to nuisance calls at problem properties.

Shankar, who was in Fiji at the time of the shootings, is back in Kamloops and claims to be taking the problems at his property seriously.

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“Yeah, it’s pretty serious. So, basically what I’m trying to do is I’ve got the people out of the basement,” he told CFJC Today. “We’re just trying to secure the property, board up the windows. We’ve had lots of break-ins. We’ve placed sensor lights outside and we’re in the process of getting the people upstairs out and they’re saying they’ll be out by the end of the month. I’m just trying to get this place under control.”

Shankar says he plans to move into the home, make more improvements over the next couple of months and keep a tighter rein on things.

“Absolutely. Being away was difficult. I didn’t even know about the shooting until a reporter got a hold of me. So, I’m back now and I’m going to take care of this myself. I had left it in family friends’ hands and it didn’t work out.”

Moving forward, he acknowledges he’s got some work to do before regaining the public’s trust.

Shankar also had the following to say to residents in the neighbourhood: “First of all, I’m sorry. Give me some time and I’ll get this fixed. All I can do is just show results.”

Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Jodi Shelkie says Shankar’s plans appear promising.

“That would be a good outcome if there were changes made to that address and it was developed into a much more livable place.”