Hundreds of tips to Crime Stoppers in 2020 make dent in gang activity
Posted January 19, 2021 10:15 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers is urging the public to keep coming to them with tips, especially with a recent spike in gang-related activity.
Tips from the public helped make a dent in gang activity in B.C. in 2020, according to Metro-Vancouver Crime Stoppers.
A release from the group says they received more than 500 anonymous tips about gang-related activities and illegal weapons last year which was part of more than 5,000 tips for all categories of crime.
Those tips helped take 17 illegal weapons off the streets and saw 21 arrests made, according to Executive Director Linda Annis.
“The new surge in gang crime in the past few weeks is reminiscent of a similar outbreak seen in the Lower Mainland several years ago,” Annis says in a release. “At that time, Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers responded with a series of ‘Guns and Gangs’ ad campaigns. In all, these campaigns are credited with generating 2587 tips over the past five years, leading to the arrest of 15 gang members, 111 arrests for illegal weapons offences and 213 guns being seized.”
A few weeks ago, a man was found in a condo near Lansdowne Road and Number 3 Road, with multiple gunshot wounds. He later died of his injuries.
Just days before, a 29-year-old man was killed in Richmond’s Steveston Park, and a day before that, a 24-year-old was shot at his home in Surrey.
