Vancouver Gang Wars,These gangsters -- and they are gangsters -- are killing one another
"These gangsters -- and they are gangsters -- are killing one another... However, these gangsters, they have families. They have brothers, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles," Cpl. Thiessen said.
"They have a network of family who know exactly what they are doing. Those people, we are calling on them to help us deal with this issue." Cpl. Thiessen called for action after three people were killed across the Lower Mainland in 24 hours. Raphael Baldini, 21, was gunned down in a busy mall parking lot in Surrey on Tuesday. He died in hospital. Police say the shooting was a targeted hit. Mr. Baldini, who had a lengthy criminal record and was out on bail on gun charges, was renting an apartment in the Balmoral Tower in Surrey in Oct. 2007 when six people were murdered there. On Wednesday, the mother of Christopher Mohan, an innocent man who was one of the murdered men, said police told her of Mr. Baldini's murder. "I told them I was very, very disappointed because for us he held the real answers of what happened that night," she said. Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) spokesman Cpl. Dale Carr said that there is no known link between Mr. Baldini's death and the six Surrey murders, other than the rental agreement. IHIT is also trying to solve the murder of a 21-year-old Port Coquitlam woman who was found dead in a truck in Coquitlam Tuesday night. The woman, who's identity is being withheld pending notification of her kin, was found in a 2003 Dodge pickup truck parked at Mason Avenue and Oxford Street. The car was not registered to her or a boyfriend, Cpl. Carr said. Police have not said how she died. The woman was known to police and her death had "all the earmarks of a targeted incident," Cpl. Carr said. Autopsy results are expected Thursday. On Monday night, James Ward Erickson, 25, was found shot to death inside his second-floor unit in an apartment building in the rough Whalley neighbourhood inSurrey. Police say the shooting was targeted. Mr. Erickson was linked to street-level drug trade in the Whalley area. Cpl. Carr said Erickson's death may be linked to the driveway shooting of Andrew Michael Cilliers, 26, in Newton on Jan. 27. He stressed that the public has to become more involved in "putting a stop to this craziness" by reporting criminal activity. "The police can just not do this on our own," Cpl. Carr said. "If you have information, for crying out loud, give the police a call."