A shooting in a quiet Sooke neighbourhood left neighbours shaken.
Bob White said he heard “six or seven pops” while watching television Tuesday night in his Ella Road home.
“I said to my wife: ‘Was that gunshots or fireworks?’ ” he said.
The 20-year resident of the street looked out the window and down his driveway only to see a “grey flash of vehicle” racing toward Sooke Road. (Sooke Road becomes West Coast Road.)
“I just saw the colour, I didn’t see the vehicle it flew by so fast,” White said. “I guess that was the shooter. Then I heard sirens coming up Sooke Road there.”
Police are looking for three suspects after the drive-by shooting, which they believe was targeted. Two people were taken to hospital Tuesday night.
One has since left, and one remains in stable condition.
Sooke RCMP said 25-year-old Joshua Nickolas Lafleur, known to live in both the Sooke and Langford areas, is suspected of being one of the men in the car during the attack.
They are also on the lookout for a grey Kia Magentis, reported stolen in Langford.
The street has returned to normal with the exception of media having taken up residence on the block, White said. The police tape and emergency vehicles from Tuesday night are gone.
“It does bother me because it’s a quite rural neighbourhood,” he said. “We just don’t expect these things.”
White said a new parking lot at the end of Ella Road for visitors to the beach may be attracting criminal activity.
He said the parking lot has been there for a few years. “It is for people to go to the beach, but a lot of people just hang out there.”
The shooting took place about half a block from John Muir Elementary School. Some parents kept their children home from school on Wednesday, said Sooke school district superintendent Jim Cambridge.
“We’ve been in contact with the police and there’s no connection at all with the school,” Cambridge said. “It’s just a proximity issue.”
A counsellor and an assistant superintendent were at the school to offer support, he said.
Sooke Mayor Maja Tait stressed that the shooting was “an isolated, random incident.”
“We’re still a strong, safe community, as we always have been.”
Nearby resident Chrystal Rose said a friend’s daughter reported hearing about 10 shots. Because traffic incidents are common, Rose said the commotion drew her outside to see if anyone required medical assistance, but a police officer told her to get back in the house because guns were involved.
“I told my husband and children to stay down from the windows,” she said.
— With files from Katherine Dedyna
