VICTIM STILL IN CRITICAL

One local man remains in critical condition in hospital in Vancouver
suffering from a gunshot wound he suffered during part of a
gangland-style violence spree over the last few weeks.

The violence included a fight at Pine Centre Mall and a minor
stabbing on Christmas Eve; a pair of shootings minutes apart on
Wednesday, a bomb threat called in at a nightclub (believed to be a
diversionary hoax); and a drive-by shooting on Norwood Street Thursday night.

Senior investigators said they are reasonably confident the shootings
are related to Prince George gang disputes, but "we are still
connecting the dots."

Sgt. Raj Sidhu, the newly-appointed head of the city's task force
unit, said the gang reality is not so clear-cut as it was only a
couple of years ago. That is a big concern, but also a big sign of
success in the battle against the drug lords.

"We traditionally had the Renegades here, the outlaw motorcycle gang,
then the Crew came in so we had two gangs and we did a lot of
enforcement against them," Sidhu said. "Most of them were arrested
and sent to jail fairly recently. That created a void. Now we have
the Independent Soldiers coming in to fill that void."

Sidhu said the three gangs are now locked in a dance of sorts for
control of the kinds of drugs each will sell and in what parts of the
city, for what price.

"They are here to make money off the backs of addicts," Sidhu said.
"Their only motivation is greed for money and greed for power."

Prince George RCMP spokesman Const. Gary Godwin said they showed in
these shootings that they do not care who else might get hurt in the process.

"The use of high-powered rifles is very disturbing," Godwin said.
"Those bullets will travel through the walls of houses and carry on
to hit other things. They are much more powerful than handgun
bullets, and even those can go stray and hit people who had nothing
to do with the target."

Sidhu said he is still looking into what the upper echelons of the
Independent Soldiers might be, and how it is connected to the
pre-existing gangs in Prince George, both of whom had turf agreements
of sorts and both answered to the Lower Mainland Hells Angels. Now,
with all the transitions, membership in the Crew and the Independent
Soldiers can be quite fluid, police said.

If you have information, call the RCMP at 561-3300 or the anonymous
Crime Stoppers tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS / www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca.