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The hunt for Kamloops shooting suspects

Kamloops police release video of suspects in shooting death of gangster.

-Kamloops this Week

Police say they are “hyper-aware” and aren’t ruling out retaliation after one of the founders of a notoriously violent B.C. drug gang was shot to death last week outside his Kamloops home.

Konaam Shirzad, one of the founders of the Red Scorpions, died of gunshot wounds after being ambushed by two unidentified suspects outside his Guerin Creek home at about 7:20 p.m. on Sept. 21.

On Thursday, police held a press conference and released surveillance video from a nearby building showing the suspects in the area before and after the shooting.

“Obviously, we’re hyper-aware now and it is a possibility that something further could happen,” RCMP Cpl. Jodi Shelkie told reporters.

The video shows two men dressed in black parking a stolen Honda Civic near the Hudson’s Bay Landing construction site, leaving the vehicle and walking across an empty lot to Shirzad’s condo complex.

Fifteen minutes later, the men can be seen driving away in the Honda, which was found burning on an Upper Sahali cul de sac 10 minutes later. The video does not show the suspects walking back to their vehicle.

“There’s some information there that we’re not releasing at this time,” Shelkie said.

According to Shelkie, investigators aren’t ruling anything out.

“We believe this is organized crime-related,” she said. “We don’t know what preceded this — what actions happened to cause this shooting. We don’t know that it’s not retaliation for something else.”

A neighbour told KTW Mounties were at his door on the morning of the shooting asking about a BMW in the neighbourhood. Shirzad was known to drive a BMW.

One of Shirzad’s associates suffered minor gunshot wounds in the ambush. Shelkie said he has not been co-operative with police.

A neighbour who heard the gunshots told KTW he heard two distinctly different calibre weapons. Shelkie refused to comment on whether multiple weapons were involved.

“We wouldn’t be commenting on that,” she said.

Investigators are looking for more surveillance footage that could help identify the suspects. Shelkie also urged anyone with potential dash-cam footage to contact police.

“If people have dash-cam video in Kamloops, if they can really reflect where they were last Thursday, if they were anywhere near Hudson’s Bay Trail or Odin Court, we would like to speak with them,” she said.

Shelkie also said investigators would like to speak with a pedestrian in the area just before the shooting and the driver of a dark-coloured SUV seen driving past the Honda as it was parking.



Jen Zielinski

About the Author: Jen Zielinski

Graduated from the broadcast journalism program at BCIT. Also holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science and sociology from Thompson Rivers University.
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