At 9 p.m. on Monday Sept 29, the main entrance to Swift 1200’s building in the 13000 block of 76 Avenue was hit by bullets. There were no reported injuries as the shooting happened while the business was closed and Swift 1200 staff would report the incident to SPS the next morning at 11 a.m. Swift 1200 is a Surrey based radio station.
The SPS believe the shooting is tied to a wave of extortion attempts targeting South Asian communities in the city. Coincidentally, host Jinny Sims was discussing Surrey’s extortion epidemic on air in the building just hours before the shooting.
SPS reports that the case has been handed over to the provincial extortion task force, which was created on Sept. 17 to investigate a surge of violence tied to extortion. The federal government has also recently heeded the province’s warnings and designated the India based criminal organization, the Bishnoi gang, as a terrorist entity due to their previous involvement in extortion.
Mayor Brenda Locke recently announced that the city has set aside a $250,000 reward fund for information leading to convictions in the investigation of all local extortion cases. SPS states that they are currently looking 48 related cases.
The extortion tip line is 236-485-5149, leads can also be reported anonymously through Crime Stoppers.