A boy in his late teens is the victim of a fatal shooting tonight (Thursday) in Abbotsford.
Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said the teen was found slumped over in the driver's seat of an SUV at about 7:45 p.m. in the 30500 block of Sparrow Drive, west of Goldfinch Street in west Abbotsford.
MacDonald said it is believed the teen is from Abbotsford and he appears to be the victim of a drive-by shooting, although police are in the early stages of their investigation and are still gathering details.
MacDonald said residents in the area reported hearing one or two vehicles racing away from the scene. A news release from police indicates that witnesses described one vehicle as a newer white Acura TL and the other as a dark-coloured sedan.
He said several homes in the area have security cameras, and police will be reviewing the footage for any evidence.
A witness told the Abbotsford News that he could see several shell casings in the intersection of Goldfinch and Sparrow.
The scene of the shooting is not far from the two streets where police installed video cameras in mid-August to monitor activities related to an ongoing conflict between two groups of South Asian men.
MacDonald said it is not yet known if tonight's shooting is related to the dispute, which police dubbed the “Townline Hill conflict.”
"It's too early for us to say definitively," he said.
Police first reported on July 7 that there had been more than 25 incidents since May 11 involving the two groups – ages 15 to 25 – and this had resulted in thousands of dollars in property damage.
At the time, police said they were concerned that the dispute, which wasn’t related to drugs or gangs, could escalate into serious physical injury.
This is Abbotsford's second murder of the year. Matt Campbell, identified as having ties to the Red Scorpions, died Jan. 2 after staggering into a business at the Fraser Valley Automall with a severe neck wound.
Police later confirmed that he had been stabbed, and Jimi Sandhu, 24, was charged a month later with second-degree murder.
A new release says that the investigation is being transitioned to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT). Anyone with information is asked to call the IHIT tip line at 1-877-551-4448 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.