Drug dealer allegedly shot in back of taxi in Surrey parking lot

Victim shot while sitting in back seat of taxi

A taxi driver was seriously injured in a shooting in Surrey on Tuesday after he was shot dead in the back seat.

His 30-year-old victim, who has a long criminal record, said a taxi pulled up at his chicken parking lot on his 14800 block on 108th Street. was targeted when : 20:00

Sally RCMP Cpl. Vanessa Mann said police arrived and found that "both occupants of the vehicle had been shot."

"The taxi driver was seriously injured and taken to hospital," she said, adding that the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team had been called in.

Strip mall 's parking lot had a complete disregard for the safety of others and resulted in a taxi driver being seriously injured," Mann said.

If anyone has information, please contact her IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or ihittipline@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

The restaurant manager told the Post Media that her "staff were stressed" after the shocking shooting.

Postmedia has not yet released the identities of the learned victims. IHIT Sgt. Tim Pierotti said Tuesday afternoon that his family had not yet been notified.

He is believed to be involved in street-level drug trafficking.  At the time of the shooting, he was in court on his three human trafficking charges, which were indicted in 2020, and on his two driving offenses in Vancouver and Surrey. His criminal record dates back to his 2010.

In 2019, he served 141 days in prison for human trafficking in Surrey. In 2017, he was sentenced to 60 days in prison for possession of stolen property and was also convicted of another case of assault with a weapon.

The shooting is not the first time a taxi driver has been put in danger. On December 28, 2020, his 14-year-old Brothers Keepers associate Tekel Willis was shot dead after getting out of a taxi in Surrey. And in August 2008, James Edward O'Toole was in the backseat of a cab on his drive to a commercial where a targeted murder occurred.

The latest murder, The Brothers Keepers, a teenager with ties to his gang, was shot dead on his highway in Burnaby's Trance, Canada, just three days after he was shot. has occurred. His second man was also wounded in the 2:29 p.m. gunfire. Saturday near Kensington Viaduct.

A black Mercedes-Benz SUV fled the shooting and was found burning in his 1100 block on East Lawn Drive in Burnaby about two hours later.

IHIT identified his deceased teenager as Meysam Zaki, 18. Investigators did not release the name of the injured man.

Just a week earlier he was on July 30 in a shooting in the parking lot of South Surrey Athletic Park, in which two youths were killed and a third seriously injured. IHIT said on Aug. 5 that a suspect had been arrested but had not yet been charged with the killing, which was described as having "ties to gang and drug activity."

kbolan@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/kbolan

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