Two people were killed and two others injured, one of them very seriously, in shootings early Monday at four locations in Langley, British Columbia, authorities said.
Officers then shot and killed the gunman, who authorities said was responsible for all shootings.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they responded to reports that shots were fired “in a number of different scenes throughout the city and town of Langley,” about 30 miles southeast of downtown Vancouver.
Police said the shooting began around midnight in the Cascades casino area, where a woman was seriously injured. Shootings were also reported at around 3 a.m. near Creek Stone Place, a supportive housing complex where a man was found dead, and at 5 a.m. at a location less than a few miles away. one mile, where another man was killed, police said.
Police shot and killed the gunman at about 5:45 a.m. at the site of the last shooting, a highway called Langley Bypass. The final victim, a man, was wounded there, Sgt. David Lee’s General murder investigation team said at a news conference on Monday afternoon. Sergeant Lee did not specify the type of weapon used.
The names of the victims and the gunman, who Sergeant Lee said was “known to the police”, were not immediately released pending notification of next of kin.
Authorities said they were trying to determine a motive for the shooting.
“These people have been targeted,” said Sergeant Lee, “but the nature of how they are related to the shooter, we are still trying to determine that.”
The shooting prompted authorities to issue an emergency alert to cell phone users in the area. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent Ghalib Bhayani said Monday it was “only the second time the RCMP in British Columbia has issued a public safety alert”. The first was after a report about an armed man in a pickup truck in Vanderhoof in November.
An urgent warning issued Monday saying that one of the shootings in Langley involved “transient victims,” but Sergeant Lee said authorities did not know if the victims were homeless. .
That warning describes the gunman as a white, dark-haired man wearing Carhartt overalls and a camouflage t-shirt in blue and green.
Langley Mayor Val van den Broek said the shooting was a tragedy.
“Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with all those affected, and the families and friends of those involved,” she said.
