The four victims were shot in five different shooting scenes, Chief Inspector Ghalib Bhayani of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Lower Mainland District said at a news conference Monday.
Police shot and killed a male suspect who was found near one of the victims, Bhayani said. “During our interaction with the man, the police fired their weapons and shot the man dead,” he said.
The Langley Royal Canadian Mounted Police previously said the suspect was in custody and investigators believe he is the only suspect.
The two deceased are men, Bhayani said. A woman is in critical condition in hospital and another male victim was shot in the leg, he said.
The incident began around midnight with the discovery of the first victim and ended around 5:45 a.m., after police engaged the suspect, according to Sergeant David Lee of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.
An emergency warning issued just after 6 a.m. indicated the casualties may have been transient, but Lee would not confirm the veracity of that statement.
The shooting “was transient, not necessarily the people,” Lee said. “These people were targeted, but the nature of their relationship with the shooter — we’re still trying to determine that.”
The investigation into the shooting, including a possible motive, is still ongoing.
Jessica Bernardo told DailyExpertNews she was driving to work when several police cars parked in front of her vehicle and traffic stopped at the corner of 200 Street and Highway 10 in Langley.
“They (police) started running away with guns,” Bernardo said. “I saw someone lying on the floor to my right.”
Bernardo said police held traffic for about 15 minutes before letting drivers through.
Authorities had issued an emergency warning to warn residents of potential danger until police could determine whether the suspect acted alone, police said. Another warning noted that they had the only suspect in custody.
In Canada, the National Public Alerting System is used to “issue potentially life-saving alerts, which are area-specific (geo-targeted),” according to the website.