GANG WAR

Shots Ring Out In Downtown; Man In Critical Condition

Prince George RCMP have finally said the words "gang war" to describe
the violence in the city.

The echo of gunfire downtown Wednesday night - some witnesses estimate
as many as 40 shots were fired - was the last straw for RCMP, who
plead with the public for information Thursday on any drug activity
going on in the city.

"Shots were exchanged between two groups," said Sgt. Raj Sidhu. "Yes
we have suspects. We have not laid any charges yet."

The 19-year-old victim is in critical condition in hospital under RCMP
guard.

"There are three main organized crime gangs in Prince George," said
RCMP spokeswoman Const. Lesley Dix. "the Renegades, there is the Crew
and there is the Independent Soldiers. There is also now an unnamed
splinter group of the Independent Soldiers and this is what this war
is about ... Members of one group are shooting members of the other
group for control of the local drug trade."

Sidhu confirmed that the Crew, after concerted hounding by local
police, have been reduced to only a few members in the city and "they
basically aren't a factor anymore" but the Independent Soldiers horned
in about two years ago to gather some of that lost momentum. One
Mountie told The Citizen that if you drew a flow-chart of the Crew and
the Independent Soldiers, the bottom members were low-level crooks and
dealers who flipped alliances easily, but at the top the Lower
Mainland-based leaders of the two groups were largely the same people.
The fighting is between the crooks at the bottom of the chart.

"A majority of the incidents since 2007 have involved members of the
Independent Soldiers," said Sidhu, who added the number of incidents
lately have been much more frequent and more violent, "nowhere near
the incidents that had been happening in the past."

Dix said thousands of hours have been devoted to fighting organized
crime in Prince George, but they need proof to lay charges and they
get that proof from witnesses who call in information. They do all
sorts of deep-intelligence investigations and execute dozens of search
warrants, but only if they have the base information to feed on.

"I think every community has a gang war, because of the greed and the
money involved in drugs," said Dix. It is distribution of cocaine and
crack cocaine that the Independent Soldiers' in-house squabble is all
about.

Dix and Sidhu added that the violence has been ramping up, as has
public risk, in many sectors of the city, not just downtown.

"All we can do is try, and do our best, and I am hoping we are making
a dent," Sidhu said.

The shooting on Dominion Street had several witnesses who are helping
police, Mounties said, and a great deal of tips and clues are coming
in