crime in my backyard.....er.....parking lot?

part 2 - a continuation from last night's posting......

so i got home at 6:30ish yesterday......i obsessed over what was happening outside my building, and unfortunately chris was working late and fixing a leaky sink at the townhouse, so i hunkered down and watched the security channel for most of the night - it was like being on the set of CSI (almost), except it was actually a real-life incident. 6 hours of security camera watching, and staring outside my window, and this is what i found out......practically nothing.

there was a lot of traffic in our driveway. obviously i don't spend every night watching the driveway, so i can't say it was more than normal, but for a friday night, it seemed rather busy. i think traffic lights should have been installed :P 1/2 the ppl going by were either stopped or voluntarily stopped by the police blocking one of our parking lot driveways. i didn't know what was going on at that point. the security camera in the parking lot entry just showed a lot of cops walking around, as well as our resident manager. and then the action unfolded in front of my eyes! the cops were putting down those yellow numbers on the ground beside bullet shell casings! oh my god! and then the camera started flashing! yikes! there really was something down in my parking lot!!!!!!

when i called chris at 8:30 to report this latest development, he confirmed he wouldn't be home for a while, so dinner was going to be extremely late. so to satisfy my curiosity and hunger, i decided to go to starbucks and get a snack. when my elevator going down arrived, my neighbour was just coming home, and we started talking. this is when i found out more juicy stuff! the incident happened between 5 and 6 p.m., cuz that's when she heard all the sirens approaching (i guess 9 cop cars will make a lot of noise!). she didn't hear the gunfire, since we're away from the parking lot (actually, i was the one who told her there was gunfire involved - she didn't know that detail). as she was coming in, she also found out that the cops were stopping all asian males for questioning. obviously they knew who they were looking for.

so off i marched to starbucks. i passed the driveway parking entrance and peeked in, but didn't see much action, asides from all the yellow numbers on the ground - i did see a #15, but i don't know if that means anything. so i turned the corner, and trotted towards the starbucks, and then put on the brakes. the cops were indeed stopping all asian males approaching the building. i tried not to blatantly stare at the commotion, but my curiosity got the best of me. identification was asked for, state your business on this property, etc. etc. then i finally got my banana creme crunch bar, and hurried back outside. this time as i passed the driveway, i saw the investigators taking pictures under a car in the parking lot. ooooh! action!

as i ate my banana creme crunch bar, i called chris with another update - i think he was starting to get annoyed w/my incessent calls :P after that there wasn't a whole lot to see on the security camera or outside in the driveway. cops were just walking around, doing "cop" stuff. then i saw the resident manager w/a cop on our 3rd floor greenspace. they were checking stuff out, looking at all the stairwell exits, and taking a peek down at the driveway. this took all of 10 minutes, so obviously they weren't looking for something in particular. just as it was getting dark around 9:30/10:00-ish, 2 cops were walking around the 3rd floor greenspace. then they were knocking on all the doors to the lofts. i guess they wanted to see if anyone heard or saw anything around 5-6ish. then they were gone.

finally at 11 p.m. a tow truck arrived. at this point i was very curious and focused all my attention on the security camera. i wanted to see what happened. well, chris came home at 11:45, so i never got to see what car was involved in the incident. off we went for "dinner" and by the time we got home an hour later, the street was clear. i was left to my own imagination as to what happened :P

well, i didn't have to wait too long to find out. my mom woke me up at 11:30 this a.m., cuz my aunt had driven by last night, saw the commotion, and called my mom for info. of course my mom knew nothing, cuz i didn't want to call her last night and freak her out. which of course, is what she was this a.m. anyhoo, i watched the noon news, and there was a 10 second blurb - the burnaby rcmp are on the look-out for a black convertible w/its top down that was involved in a Wild West-type shoot-out in my parking lot. here's the report from www.news1130.com:

Burnaby shooting linked to drugs and organized crime
Burnaby RCMP say drugs are behind last nights shooting on Dawson Street. Police are looking for 2 men, and a sports car which fled the scene. Police say they have many potential witnesses, since it happened near a high-rise complex in broad daylight. They now also have a victim, as a man in his 20's showed up at Burnaby General Hospital with a gunshoot wound to his hand. He told Police he was in the "wrong place at the wrong time". But Corporal Pierre Lemaitre says drugs were involved, and it was apparently NOT a random shooting. He says the victim is known to police, and was not very cooperative. Witnesses reported seeing two men running away, and then seeing a black convertible sports car with its top down leave the scene. Police now say the car was connected to the shooting. Call crimestoppers if you have any information.

that's it. that's all the information we have right now. i don't know what's going to happen now - we don't know if it was a random person who parked in our lot and was working on a deal, or it if was someone who had a visitor in the building and it went sour, or what. i am not impressed, but at this point what can i do? who are my neighbours? what are they all doing in the privacy of their own homes? is anyone safe?

all i can say is my god! if i had come home at my usual afterwork hour, then i could have seen more, i could have been a potential witness. if i had come home at my usual afterwork hour, i might have been cutting through the parking lot (which i often do) at the exact time the incident happened. all these "if's". i'm feeling very unsettled right now even though the chances of these ppl re-appearing on our property are so slim. we have security cameras everywhere, and now every owner in the buildings are probably as on-edge as i am and monitoring every move ppl ar emaking. plus the incident is in the news, so these ppl would be stupid to try something here again. on the other hand, you NEVER KNOW! criminals can be stupid.