Extortion suspected after home, business targeted in Surrey, B.C., shootings

A home and a business were damaged by gunfire in Surrey, in two shootings believed to be related to the ongoing rash of extortion-related violence.

Authorities are investigating two shootings that damaged a home and a business in Surrey, B.C., overnight—both of which appear to be related to the ongoing rash of extortions in the city.

The Surrey Police Service said the first incident happened around 12:49 a.m. Monday at a business complex on Production Boulevard, in the Cloverdale area.

Police said the gunfire targeted the exterior of a building that was unoccupied at the time, and that no one was hurt.

They noted that gunfire was previously reported at a business in the same complex just over a week earlier, on March 23.

Around an hour after Monday’s first shooting, gunfire was reported at a home on 77A Avenue, in the Newton neighbourhood.

“On scene, police observed damage to a home and an unoccupied vehicle that was parked out front,” the SPS said in a news release. “Fortunately, none of the occupants of the home were injured.”

Authorities have not given any indication the two shootings are connected, but said investigators believe both are extortion-related.

So far this year, there have been dozens of suspected extortion incidents in the city, and more elsewhere in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.

Earlier this month, the Canada Border Services Agency confirmed 35 people had been deported as a result of the work of the province’s Extortion Task Force.

Surrey police asked anyone with information on either of Monday’s shootings to call the department’s non-emergency line at 604-599-0502.