Police in Kamloops have released this photo of a suspect vehicle involved in at least one shooting in the city on June 11, 2018.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/RCMP Handout

KAMLOOPS - Police are trying to confirm if two separate shootings in Kamloops yesterday were connected.

Kamloops RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jodi Shelkie says in a news release officers of the rural detachment responded to a 911 call shortly before 11 a.m. yesterday, June 11, which led to a home on Salish Road.

An unidentified person or persons allegedly attended a home and an altercation took place that led to a firearm being used to shoot through a window, Shelkie says. There were no injuries, but the suspect was believed to be driving a black truck.

Shortly before 1:30 p.m. yesterday, officers received a report of a shooting between two vehicles near the intersection of McGill Road and Summit Drive near Thompson Rivers University. Both vehicles fled the scene immediately after shots were fired.

The suspect vehicle was described as a black Cadillac Escalade truck with an Alberta licence plate. At the time of the incident, it wasn't known if anyone had been hurt.

Shelkie says officers immediately attended the area and flooded egress routes trying to locate the vehicles involved. Both vehicles have now been located and are in police custody.

The suspect truck was abandoned in the Pemberton Terrace area, with an Alberta licence plate not registered to the vehicle.

Head of the Kamloops RCMP's serious crime unit, Staff Sgt. Simon Pillay, says the suspect vehicle was reported stolen from Vernon on May 19.

"There is reason to believe the suspect or suspects involved in this shooting have had this vehicle in the Kamloops area since late May," Pillay says in the news release. "For this reason, we are releasing a picture of the truck and asking that anyone with information about who is known to have possession of this vehicle contact the police."

Shelkie says officers have learned a 56-year-old Kamloops resident was injured in the McGill Road shooting, after being shot several times. The victim required surgery but is expected to survive.

A young person was also in the vehicle, Shelkie says, but they are not from Kamloops and their city of residence is not being released at this time. Both occupants in the victim's vehicle are associated to the Kamloops drug trade, Shelkie says.

Although the two shootings are not confirmed to be connected, given the similarity in suspect vehicles involved, the public's assistance is being sought for both cases. 

"The violence that we see occurs in cycles," Pillay says. "We may experience periods of relative calm followed by several violent incidents. While planned to some degree, these are most often crimes of opportunity that are not bound by jurisdiction. They can happen anywhere and at any time. Fortunately, injuries to innocent bystanders are a rare occurrence but gun use by criminals is treated very seriously by the RCMP and will be investigated thoroughly as a priority case. Although this investigation is at it's early stages, we are confident that neither shooting were random but rather targeted shootings related to drug trafficking". 

Kamloops RCMP is asking anyone who saw the initial incident on McGill Road and Summit Drive, or who has any information about these incidents to contact the detachment at 250-828-3000 or Crime Stoppers at 1 800-222-8477.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Ashley Legassic or call 250-319-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2018