Bystander killed in shooting targeting neighbours’ house – UPDATED

An Abbotsford neighbourhood was in shock Thursday after a 74-year-old man was gunned down in a shooting targeting the house next door the evening before.
Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said the innocent victim is believed to have been standing in his driveway when a car in the driveway next door was sprayed with gunfire about 7:17 p.m. Wednesday.
The targeted house in the 3500-block of Promontory Court is well-known to police, MacDonald said.
But the home of the man who was killed has never been on police radar.
“The neighbouring house and our victim have exactly zero contacts with police -let alone negative contacts,” MacDonald said in an interview Wednesday night. “These would be your ideal neighbours. If you’re imagining a worse-case scenario, this is it.”
Several neighbours told The Vancouver Sun Thursday that they heard the shots and can’t believe an innocent senior was struck and killed.
“This innocent man – I feel so bad for him,” Daljit Sidhu said. “It’s terrible. It shouldn’t be happening in a good neighbourhood.”
Sidhu was cleaning his truck on the next street over when he heard the shots – unsure at first if they were firecrackers or bullets.
There were four pops, then a pause, then another four, he said.
He got in his truck and drove closer, but couldn’t see anything so returned home as the police sirens rang out.
“It would have been worse if the weather was not cold. There would have been more people outside. Every day there are kids there. I’ve been living here probably for 10-15 years now and there’s kids, elderly people coming around.”
He said he saw the victim regularly, though had never spoken to him.
“That older fellow, he is always there. I see him all the time standing outside in the evenings,” Sidhu said.
He said it’s time for something to be done to stem the violence now that an innocent man has died.
“This should be addressed. Somebody has to step up. It’s not a matter of whose kids they are, which community it is. It is affecting the community. It shouldn’t be happening here. It is getting worse and worse. In the last 3 weeks how many shootings have be had?”
Neighbour Harvinder Dhaliwal said his children are afraid after hearing the shots.
He has only lived in the area of well-kept homes overlooking rolling hills for about a year.
The only hint there was trouble in the neighbourhood was the police security camera installed on Promontory Court, a few houses away from the shooting.
“I think police know something was going to happen here,” he said. “It’s  very bad luck for Abbostford. One week ago, some gunshots on Sandpiper, then a man got killed here. It’s very bad.”
He said his children always play outside.
“Now they are scared to play in front of our home,” he said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was on a campaign stop in Abbotsford just five kilometres away from the crime scene Wednesday night.
MacDonald said police got a 911 call reporting shots fired on Promontory Court.
“We show up initially as we’ve done unfortunately a few times before and we see a vehicle shot up and we don’t see anybody injured in and around the vehicle and we’re going okay, another one of these,” he said. “And then as you widen the circle, you come across the neighbor.”
The man, whose identity has not yet been released, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The people living in the targeted house have not been cooperating with police after earlier incidents.
MacDonald said he hopes that will change now that a bystander has been killed.
“These people are definitely people who have had numerous negative contacts with police,” he said of the people in the targeted house. “We are familiar with them. We’re familiar with the house. Certainly our lead investigative theory is that this is tied to that on-going conflict that we’ve been struggling with and talking about for a year and a half-plus.”
He said investigators are hoping footgage from the surveillance camera on the cul de sac will provide a description of the suspect vehicle.
MacDonald said Abbotsford major crime detectives and forensic identification unit officers were called to the scene.
He said the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is taking over the leading role in the case.
IHIT has scheduled a news conference for this afternoon.
Anyone with information about this incident should call the IHIT Tip Line at 1-877-551-4448 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.