Several victims at multiple shooting in Langley: RCMP
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A second emergency alert said a suspect is “no longer a threat,” but people are asked to continue to avoid the area.
Publishing date:
Jul 25, 2022 • 38 minutes ago • 6 minute read • Join the conversation 
Police have blocked off the intersection of Highway 10 at 200th Street in Langley. Photo by DriveB Article content
Homicide investigators are trying to determine why an armed man went on a rampage in Langley early on Monday morning, shooting two people to death and injuring two more.
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The rampage ended when police caught up to a suspect at the location of the fourth shooting and shot him to death.
“We don’t know the motive behind this deadly incident nor if there was any relationship between the deceased suspect and the victims,” RCMP Chief Supt. Ghalib Bhayani said.
Police identified the dead suspect as 28-year old Jordan Daniel Goggin from Surrey. In a statement, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Goggin was known to police, but had “no criminal contacts.”
The shootings spanned nearly six hours across several sites in Langley City and the Township of Langley early Monday, and targeted at least one person living in a supportive housing complex.
“These people were targeted, but the nature of how they are related to the shooter, we’re still trying to determine that,” IHIT Sgt. David Lee told a news conference at the Langley RCMP detachment.
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Mike Farnworth, B.C.’s public safety minister, said late Monday he was disturbed by the “senseless act of violence.”
“I understand British Columbians are worried and fearful when events like this happen,” he said. “I want British Columbians to feel assured, as more info becomes available, we will make that known to the public.”
Police said the shootings started around midnight in the area of the Cascades Casino near 203A Street and Fraser Highway, where a woman was shot and taken to Langley hospital in critical condition.
The shooter then proceeded to Creek Stone Place, a supportive housing site in the 6400-block of 200 Street, where shots were fired at around 3 a.m. One person was killed there, about two kilometres north of the casino.
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Two hours later, at 5 a.m., more gunfire erupted at the Langley City bus loop near Logan Avenue and Glover Road — a few hundred metres away from the casino site. Another man was killed there.
The violence ended 45 minutes later at 200 Street and the Langley Bypass where police confronted a suspect after a man was shot in the leg was at this last scene. Police did not say if the suspect shot at police before officers opened fire, but a police vehicle was seen with numerous bullet holes.
Bhayani said evidence points to a single gunman responsible for the shootings. The victims have all been identified by the police, but their identities were not released.
One of the victims was identified by a friend as Paul Wallace, known as “small Paul”.
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Bullet holes in a vehicle as RCMP are on scene at a fatal shooting in the parking lot of the Rio Can Langley Centre on 200th St. in Langley, BC., on July 25, 2022. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG
Longtime friend Cheryl Smith, 55, told Postmedia that Wallace was in his 50s and lived at Creek Stone Place, a former Quality Inn hotel that the province converted to a supportive-housing complex.
Around noon, Smith ran up to police tape at the Langley City bus loop with tears in her eyes, pleading for Mounties to let her know if the victim who lay underneath a forensic identification unit tent was another of her friends.
“I feel heartbroken,” Smith told Postmedia from the window of her car. “Paul was an awesome guy. He helped a lot of people in the community, including me, when I was down and out.”
“This was an isolated incident as far as we know,” Langley City Mayor Val van den Broek said. “I just want to say to the Langley community: We’re strong and we’ll get through this.”
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“I don’t know why people are shocked that these things happened to the less fortunate,” said Kim Snow, the founder of Kimz Angel, a non-profit that has served Langley’s homeless community.
Snow said B.C. Housing, which put up unhoused residents in Langley in hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic as an emergency self-isolation measure, told her it would use the opportunity to find permanent housing for them.
Instead, Snow said, many of those living in the hotels were put back out on the streets in March.
“It’s an unsafe place for them, sleeping outside in the dark. They are vulnerable and unprotected from all sorts of dangers and our government has let them down because they need housing to protect them.”
RCMP on scene at a fatal shooting in the parking lot of the Rio Can Langley Centre on 200th St. in Langley, BC., on July 25, 2022. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG
Late Monday, B.C. Housing confirmed in a statement one of the shooting incidents happened outside Creek Stone Place.
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“Victim Services has been in touch with staff and other residents at Creek Stone to provide support as needed,” the statement said. “In addition, Gateway of Hope shelter in Langley, located at 5787 Langley Bypass, is opening up 15 additional mats this week to accommodate anyone experiencing homelessness who may not feel safe sleeping outdoors.”
Since 2017, B.C. Housing added, there have been “more than 530 homes purchased, completed or underway, including 95 supportive homes in the City of Langley.”
At the news conference, Lee said police were not able to confirm if all the victims involved were homeless.
“We cannot say right now that they are all homeless,” he said. “We are still determining how they are related to the suspect.”
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The public was alerted to the unfolding incident early Monday by an emergency alert sent to cellphones across the Lower Mainland.
The alert, sent at around 6:25 a.m., was issued out of an abundance of caution, said police. It warned of several shootings, including one incident that involved “transient victims” in the Township of Langley.
This is only the second time an emergency alert was issued by RCMP in B.C. The first time was in November 2021 during an active shooter incident in Vanderhoof.
The alert was issued to notify as many people as possible in that geographical area at that time, said IHIT.
Police also confirmed investigators were at five different sites in Langley.
At one site, a white car riddled with bullet holes could be seen in a strip mall parking lot near 200 Street and the Langley Bypass. A truck with a smashed-out window was also in the lot, along with an evidence tent.
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Nearby, a pair of shoes and a backpack could be seen strewn across the sidewalk.
Another tent could be seen at the Langley bus loop located at Logan Avenue and Glover Road near the Mission Thrift Store, where one of the victims was shot dead.
One man, who said he was homeless, said he rushed to the Langley bus loop after friends told him another homeless man had been shot in the area.
“I saw ambulance (paramedics) try to revive the guy,” he said.
The man asked his name be withheld fearing retaliation from the shooter. “It’s so sad. I hope they are able to identify who this man is and tell his family.”
RCMP in Langley following reports of several shootings. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG
Police asked the public to avoid 200 Street and Langley Bypass, the Langley bus loop, and the parking lot of Cascades Casino at Fraser Highway and 204 Street.
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That area by the casino, not far from the Langley bus loop, was also cordoned off. Behind the police tape, a shopping cart containing what appeared to be personal belongings sat underneath a tree.
By 8 a.m. a small group of people had gathered on concrete benches outside the casino, a few hundred metres away from the cordoned-off site.
One of them, a middle-aged woman who identified herself to Postmedia as homeless, said that from that vantage point, she heard the screams of a woman earlier that morning, followed by the pop of gunshots.
“She looked like she had been sleeping,” the woman said.
At Willowbrook Shopping Centre in the Langley Township, a small section including the front entrance of T & T Supermarket and a TransLink bus stop was also behind police lines.
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The emergency alert included a description of a man who was associated with a white car.
About an hour after the alert was issued, a second notification was sent out, saying the suspect “is no longer a threat.”
Jess Lee was heading to work on the Langley Bypass when her car was blockaded by a large police presence on 200th Street.
At first she assumed it was a car accident. But after seeing police charging the area carrying rifles, she knew another event was unfolding.
“There were at least 15 police cars gathered in one area,” said Lee. “One for sure was kneeling on someone, holding them down.”
The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. has also been notified and will be investigating police actions that led to the death of the suspect.
Shoes and personal belongings seen on a sidewalk. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG 
RCMP in Langley following reports of several shootings. Photo by Nick Procaylo /PNG 
A vehicle with bullet holes visible on the windshield is seen after authorities issued an alert about shootings targeting transient victims in Langley. Photo by Jesse Winter /REUTERS 
RCMP in Langley following reports of shootings. Photo by Jesse Winter /REUTERS 
RCMP in Langley following reports of shootings.
chchan@postmedia.com
sgrochowski@postmedia.com
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