Attempted murder investigation underway following daylight shooting

Jun 12, 2018 | 12:56 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kamloops RCMP are continuing their investigation into Monday’s brazen daylight shooting in Sahali.

Shots rang out just before 1:30 p.m. near the intersection of McGill Road and Summit Drive. Both vehicles fled the scene though the suspect vehicle – a black Cadillac Escalade truck with an Alberta licence plate that police later found was not registered to the vehicle itself – was located in the Pemberton Terrace area of Kamloops, abandoned.

Staff Sgt. Simon Pillay says the truck was reported stolen from Vernon on May 19.

“There is reason to believe that the suspect or suspects involved in this shooting have had this vehicle in the Kamloops area since late May. For this reason, we are releasing a picture of the truck and asking that anyone with information about who is known to have possession of this vehicle contact the police.”

Police say that a 56 year old Kamloops man was injured in the shooting but is expected to survive following surgery Monday. A second occupant of the victim vehicle, a young person, was not injured and the city of residence is not being released at this time. Both occupants of the victim’s vehicle are associated to the Kamloops drug trade.

Police says the afternoon shooting follows an earlier shooting Monday, just before 11 a.m., at a home on Salish Road.

“The investigation revealed unidentified person(s) allegedly attended a residence and an altercation took place that led to a firearm being used to shoot through a window. There were no injuries however it is believed that the suspect(s) were driving a black truck,” said police. 

“Although the two shootings are not confirmed to be connected, given the similarity in suspect vehicles involved, the public’s assistance is being sought for both cases.”

Pillay says this investigation is in its early stages and is “confident that neither shooting were random but rather targeted shootings related to drug trafficking.”