Langley gun battle captured on security video

Security video at a Langley Chevron station shows two vehicles speeding around the lot while the occupants fired at each other. February 11, 2009.

There has been yet another targeted shooting on B.C.'s Lower Mainland streets, but this time police aren't sure if anyone is hurt.

Early Wednesday morning a gun battle erupted between the occupants of two vehicles in near 86th Ave. and 200th St. in Langley.

A clerk working at the Chevron gas station says its security video shows two vehicles speeding around the lot while the occupants fired at each other.

"They were just driving around like (a) cat and mouse shooting at each other," said a woman who wanted to be identified only as Jenn. "And then they took off and went into the Tim Hortons parking lot and battled it out and took off."

A bullet-riddled grey pickup truck has been towed from the scene and several shell casings have been recovered. The licence plates of the truck have been removed.

"It would appear as though one of the bullets actually immobilized the engine of the vehicle," said Const. Holly Marks of the RCMP's Langley detachment.

Police still haven't found any victims. They are canvassing local hospitals in hopes of finding the truck's owner, and to determine if the vehicle was stolen. "We haven't been able to locate any of the involved parties at this point," Marks said.

The shooting happened only blocks away from the Langley shopping centre where Kevin LeClair, 26, was shot and killed last Friday.

There have been seven shootings in the past week in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, four of them fatal.

A problem that can't be ignored

The recent spate of gun violence has police and politicians under the gun.

B.C.'s premier says the problem is obvious, and is promising a major crackdown on gangs.

"We will need more police officers. We will focus them on gangs," Gordon Campbell said Tuesday.

"Gangs in British Columbia should know this, if you are here we're coming after you and you are not accepted in our neighborhoods, in our communities, and anywhere in our province."

Campbell says he intends to hire more special prosecutors and maybe even create a special courtroom to prosecute gangsters.

But the opposition party slammed yesterday's announcement, saying the government has waited too long to act.

"This issue has been going on at least two years and let's take a look at this government's record," said opposition NDP leader Carole James.

"Ten correctional institutions closed, youth services cut, fewer court houses in British Columbia. No wonder B.C. has become Canada's safe haven for organized crime."

With files from The Canadian Press