Police investigators look into a shooting at the Executive Hotel on Lougheed Highway that claimed the life of two men on Monday morning.
Photograph by: Larry Wright , BURNABY NOW
Two men are dead after a "brazen" Monday morning shooting at the Executive Hotel and Conference Centre at 4201 Lougheed Hwy.
Sgt. Jennifer Pound of the RCMP's integrated homicide investigation team confirmed at a Monday afternoon press conference that two men, one a Caucasian and the second an Indo-Canadian, died after sustaining gunshot wounds just before 11:30 a.m. Monday.
"All attempts to revive the men were unsuccessful," said Pound, who added the shootings were "brazen" and "cold."
Pound also said that preliminary indications are that the shootings appear to be targeted, but it's too early in the investigation to say whether they were gang-related.
Police may also be looking for a third person involved in the shooting, as Pound said police believe "somebody else left the scene." In addition, Pound said early indications are that the two victims did not shoot each other.
The hotel, which caters mainly to business travellers, was behind police tape, but yellow tarps covering the bodies could be seen from the parking lot. One of the tarps was in the main lobby area of the hotel while the second was to the right, closer to the entrance to the hotel restaurant and a walkway to the hotel pool.
Pound said police dogs were also called to the scene, as were Burnaby firefighters and B.C. ambulance paramedics.
Joe Ennis, director of hotel services for the Executive Hotel, was summoned from his downtown office just after 11:30 a.m. to deal with the situation.
"Staff are in a state of shock," said Ennis. "We can say that guests are still being allowed to come and go and as far as we know, everybody else is OK."
Ennis said he didn't know what connection the two victims had to the hotel, but that's something the police were looking into.
Police tape surrounded the business hotel Monday afternoon, but neighbouring businesses, such as the Cactus Club and Boston Pizza, which share a parking lot with the hotel, remained operating as usual.
"It's miraculous that nobody else got hurt," said Pound. "This happened in broad daylight. It's brazen. It's cold. ... We have many, many investigators looking into this."
