One man police have now identified as 21-year-old Bilal Hameed is dead after a shooting in a residential neighbourhood of Surrey on Thursday night (June 26) in a targeted attack.
Surrey Police Service officers responded to calls of a shooting in the Whalley neighbourhood, near the 10800 block of 129 Street, at about 7:40 p.m. on June 26, the SPS confirmed in a press release late Thursday.
About a dozen police cars and ambulance surrounded the scene after gunfire was heard.
Officers found a man suffering from life-threatening injuries, police report, with homicide investigators adding that the victim, Hameed, was driving when he was hit with gunfire. Despite life-saving measures, he died at the scene.
The Integrated Homicide Investigatiion Team (IHIT) has now taken over the investigation.
"The investigation is in the early stages, and IHIT is working in partnership with Surrey Police Service officers to complete priority tasks," the police press release says. "While the motive is still under investigation, the incident does not appear to be random in nature."
In an update to media Friday afternoon, IHIT confirmed the shooting was targeted.
"Mr. Hameed has had previous interactions with the police," the release adds.
Following the shooting, investigators located a burnt black Dodge pickup truck that was involved in the shooting in the 9400-block of 184 Street.
“Police are working diligently to identify all parties involved in this shooting,” Sgt. Freda Fong of IHIT said.
“Investigators are expected to be in the area interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence and canvassing for video.”
The homicide just two weeks after the shooting death of 56-year-old Satwinder Sharma, shot dead in Fleetwood at his business on June 11 – one of a series of recent crimes connected to extortion threats in Surrey's South Asian community.
However, Fong confirmed Thursday's shooting is not extortion-related but so far seems to be linked to organized crime.
Anyone who has information or dashcam footage of the area of the shooting between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. that day or the burnt vehicle's location between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Thursday is urged to call the IHIT information line at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448) or by email at ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.
Earlier on Thursday night (June 26), Surrey Police confirmed that officers were investigating a shots-fired incident. Police tape blocked off the street of the residential neighbourhood with many SPS cars on site as well as ambulance vehicles on the rainy night.
Police initially confirmed a shooting but did not yet have reports of injuries; by 10 p.m., they confirmed it was in fact a homicide.
There have been five fatal shootings in Surrey to date, with two of them police-related and under investigation by the Independent Investigations Office, a Surrey-based police watchdog.
Aside of the shootings, homicide investigators determined that a case involving a man’s body being found in an abandoned house on Jan. 5 after a fire in the 9800-block of 138 Street was not a homicide.
Police are also investigating the “suspicious” disappearance of Navdeep Dhaliwal, 25, last seen April 29.
Sgt. Freda Fong, a spokeswoman with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said Dhaliwal is presumed to be dead and foul play is suspected, but she added it’s “important to not spread speculation or jump to conclusions at this time.”
As for the fatal shootings in Surrey so far in 2025, a Surrey man was shot and killed by police in the 13900-block of 100 Avenue on Jan. 31 and Chase De Balinhard, 15, was fatally shot by police in Cloverdale on Feb. 9.
Meanwhile, IHIT continues to investigate the March 3 fatal shooting of Jaskaran Singh Minhas 29, in the 17900-block of 120 Street; the fatal shooting of Satinder Sharma, 56, at his place of work near 160 Street and 84 Ave. on June 11 and a most recent case where a man was shot dead in the 10800-block of 129 Street on June 26.
In 2024, Surrey recorded nine homicides and had 12 in 2023. In 2022 there were 21, and 10 in 2021. In 2020 there were 12 homicides; 21 in 2019 and 15 in 2018.
The most the city recorded in any given year was 25 in 2013, breaking the previous record of 21 in 2005.
Since IHIT took over investigating homicides from the Surrey RCMP’s serious crimes section in June 2003 it has to date cleared 206 of the total 366 homicide cases it has investigated in Surrey. That is a clearance rate of 56 per cent. These cases, according to IHIT, “have been cleared by charge, recommended charge, or cleared otherwise.”
– with files by Tom Zytaruk
