A Surrey business was targeted with bullets for the third time in the early-morning hours of Thursday.
Around 3:43 a.m. Thursday (Oct. 16), Surrey Police Service officers responded to reports of a shooting at Kap's Café in the 8400-block of 120 Street, where officers found a business that had been damaged by several bullets, an SPS release said.
Kap's Café is a business owned by Indian entertainment star Kapil Sharma that has already been targeted twice in extortion-related shooting since July.
The café reportedly reopened earlier this month after shootings on July 10 and Aug. 7.
There were staff on site at the time of the shooting, but fortunately, no one was injured.
While the shooting does have "the earmarks of extortion," SPS media liaison Ian MacDonald said police are still in the early stages of the investigation.
Because of the ongoing extortion-related shootings targeting businesses and homes throughout the city, a provincial task force was created to combat extortion incidents, but MacDonald said in an email that the decision as to whether the Provincial Extortion Task Force assumes the file is still to be determined.
As of Oct. 15, there were 65 reported extortion threats and 35 shootings related to extortion in Surrey.
Kap's Café has had a camera tower and SPS police vehicle on site for several weeks, but MacDonald wouldn't answer whether there were any officers in the vehicle during Thursday morning's shooting, if the officer(s) called for backup or chased the shooter, whether the camera caught the shooter(s), if there wasn't an officer in the police vehicle, and what kinds of surveillance SPS has been conducting at that location.
"I won’t go into the details relating to SPS’ patrols and deterrent techniques apart from saying that we have increased overt and covert presence in the area as a result of the repeated incidents there," MacDonald said
Anyone with information about this incident, the identity of the suspect(s), or in possession of any dashcam or CCTV footage should contact the SPS non-emergency line at 604-599-0502 and quote file number 25-90856 (SP) or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or solvecrime.ca.