Gangsters in three vehicles cornered a car at a Langley strip mall, then opened fire with various weapons, including a machine gun

Gangsters in three vehicles cornered a car at a Langley strip mall, then opened fire with various weapons, including a machine gun - was unsettling enough. A 26-year-old man later died, making his death the fourth in a week.But yesterday, scores of officers were looking for evidence on the pavement in and around the parking lot of an IGA supermarket in the city's touristy Kitsilano neighbourhood, a day after a 28-year-old man was tracked and shot several times. The victim was alive yesterday, but "unco-operative with the police investigation at this time," said Constable Jana McGuinness, a Vancouver police spokeswoman.The suspect fled the scene after the 11 p.m. shooting."We believe this was a targeted shooting. It has the earmarks of a gang shooting, but we're not making the definitive links just yet."Mayor Gregor Robertson conceded yesterday the "crisis" does not reflect well on Vancouver.
"[Vancouver's] a big city, and we're dealing with the big-city problems that we've seen across North America. We've got to do better. This year, we've got to prove the gangs have no place in Vancouver and deal with it effectively," said Mr. Robertson, a former opposition NDP member of the legislature elected mayor last November.
"These shootings know no boundaries. Every neighbourhood is at risk in Metro Vancouver. It's horrific and it's unnerving for people to have this happen in their communities. We need a serious response from Victoria to address the crisis now with gang crimes."Police were called to the scene of the Kitsilano shooting - blocks from the trendy Fourth Avenue shopping district - by a flurry of 911 calls. "It sounded as if someone was going down the street with a baseball bat hitting cars," one woman, who lives in an apartment overlooking the parking lot, said yesterday while taking her baby for a stroll.The area resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the shooting was no surprise even though it happened in the otherwise quiet and prosperous neighbourhood."With the gang situation, it doesn't matter where you are now. It can happen anywhere," she said, referring, in part, to a 2007 shooting at a posh restaurant on the other end of Kitsilano that remains unsolved.Mr. Robertson said the situation is making the case for a regional police force to co-ordinate some response to the dozens of gangs thought to be active in the region.As it stands, there is a police force in Vancouver and the RCMP in some other Lower Mainland communities as well as some other civic forces."Right now, with all the jurisdictions, all the boundaries and turf, the gangs are running rampant," he said.
Vancouver police have put much effort into dealing with gangs, but can't chase suspects into Abbotsford, Port Moody or Surrey, Mr. Robertson said.
"There's a real limitation to the current set-up," he said.He said he will press the issue, though he acknowledged that changes won't be ready in time for the world's scrutiny during the Olympics."Regionalizing the police forces is ultimately the best move and the move that every other big city has taken," he said.He said the status quo - an array of anti-gang units and agencies - is not enough."The latest rash of murders demonstrates that. We need more investment from Victoria and Ottawa to bolster the police ranks regionally and we need better co-ordination. I will push [a regional police force] and it will take some political courage for the [B.C.] Solicitor-General to drive it because lots of municipalities are against it. It will cost them more in taxes. There is lots of resistance by smaller municipalities. I don't know if anyone thinks they're exempt from gang violence. As a region, we've got to demand better."Constable McGuinness said yesterday that all the regional forces are sharing information. But she said the cases are very challenging. "We've got unco-operative victims and, in many cases, unco-operative witnesses and family members, so that makes it very difficult for us."Police in Vancouver and elsewhere in the Lower Mainland have failed to make arrests in any of the recent incidents or the major gangland hits of the past few years, including the shooting deaths of six men in a Surrey-area apartment building in October, 2007, or the August, 2007, hit on a Chinese restaurant across central Vancouver from the IGA shooting. Two people were killed and six others injured