Shooting shocks neighbours

Parkcrest residents were frightened as police responded to a shooting just outside their homes Friday evening.

“It’s scary, the whole thing was scary,” one woman said of the police incident, noting she stayed away from the walls and windows of her home as a precaution while police attended the scene.

“For hours we couldn’t even sleep.”

Mounties said they were called to 1774 Parkcrest Ave. at about 5 p.m. on Friday after a person was shot in an outbuilding on the property. The man was taken to hospital where he was treated for serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said the man was shot “by an unknown number of suspects, who then fled through the backyard and toward the train tracks.”

Officers, along with the Police Dog Service Unit and the Southeast District Emergency Response Team, searched the area, but the suspects were not located, an RCMP press release stated.

Neighbours, who Castanet is not naming by request, recalled seeing numerous police vehicles along the 1700-block of Parkcrest Avenue on Friday evening.

Some said police came to their homes telling them to keep their doors closed and to stay away from their windows. Residents said the incident lasted for hours and was eventually scaled back to just a few RCMP cars that appeared to be guarding the scene into Saturday morning.

Possible shooting victim seen lying on ground

One neighbour said she heard someone moaning loudly outside before police arrived, but saw nothing when she initially looked out her window.

She said she looked a little later to see someone across the street lying on the side of the road, with two stopped cars nearby and a person on their phone.

“But nobody went too close to the person that was laying there, so I assumed something bad had happened,” the woman said.

She said she wasn’t sure if the person on the ground had been struck by a vehicle or was associated to the home of the police incident.

She said police were on scene within about 15 minutes.

Shots heard after police arrived

Multiple people said they heard what sounded like numerous gunshots fired over a period of time after police arrived on scene, as well as the sound of a flash-bang grenade.

One neighbour said he saw police with guns drawn and heard what sounded like 10 shots fired between about 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. He said he believed police arrived at about 5:30 p.m. and it was an hour before he heard the first blast.

In addition to hearing suspected gunfire, another man told Castanet he heard police on a loudspeaker telling anyone in the home at 1774 Parkcrest Ave. to come out and that they were under arrest.

The home could be seen Saturday sporting a shattered front window and surrounded by police tape.

One woman said she was shocked the police incident happened at the house because the home appeared to have been vacated weeks ago.

The woman also noted the 1700-block of Parkcrest Avenue was the block where a burning car was found that Kamloops RCMP linked to the July shooting of Cameron Cole outside the Sandbar Grill off Tranquille Road.

Cole is one of two men at the centre of a drug trade conflict that Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley said in May has created an increased risk to public safety.

Police said the motive behind Friday's shooting along Parkcrest Avenue is still being investigated, but they believe it was a targeted attack and confirmed police are familiar with the victim.

Empty buildings

Numerous residents told Castanet they have seen police coming and going from 1774 Parkcrest Ave.

One neighbour said that while police attending the home is a common site, Friday’s shooting was the worst incident she’s seen.

“I hope it’s finally sorted for good,” the woman said of the home, adding she’s thankful for the work of police.

Neighbours also said the homes next to the house had been vacant — 1786 Parkcrst Ave., to the east, since a fire more than a year ago and 1782 Parkcrest Ave., to the west, appeared to be vacated anywhere from a few weeks to a month ago.

Police have asked anyone with information about the shooting, or dashcam or security footage that may be related to it, to contact the Kamloops RCMP Detachment at 250-828-3000.