By Jill Sperling

Kamloops RCMP say they are ‘all hands on deck’ after last week’s homicides

Jan 28, 2019 | 2:50 PM

KAMLOOPS — RCMP remain tight-lipped about their investigation into Wednesday’s two deadly shootings they say are linked to organized crime. 

“When it’s shootings in broad daylight and so on then it is often related to organized crime,” said Cpl. Jodi Shelkie, “but there’s other information that we have that we can link it to organized crime.”

31-year-old Cody Mathieu was shot at the Super 8 Motel in Valleyview just two hours before 41-year-old Rex Gill was shot at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Aberdeen. 

Both died in hospital. 

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“Since then we’ve had a lot of resources come in from other detachments as well as Southeast District and the Lower Mainland,” Shelkie said. “We’ve been disrupting a lot of activity over the weekend and throughout this week. So, right now we have all hands on deck, we’ve got over 50 officers dedicated to this, working 24 hours a day, so we’re heavily involved in these investigations.”

The province’s anti-gang unit — the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit — also made its presence known in Kamloops last week. The unit said its job right now is to deter any further violence while investigators try to solve these homicides.

Mayor Ken Christian says he was briefed on the shootings last week and says he doesn’t feel the public is at risk. 

“It’s totally unacceptable,” he said, “but I think there’s a reality at play here and that is if you use drugs, you’re likely to die sooner, and if you sell drugs you’re likely to die sooner. And so for the general public, I don’t think that there’s a real concern, but certainly if you are involved in the drug trade in any way, shape or form, it’s risky.” 

With both of Wednesday’s shootings taking place in public places and during daylight hours, RCMP say the public does need to remain vigilant. 

“There’s always a concern to the public. To that end, that’s why we have so many investigators in the front end of these two homicides,” Shelkie said. “We want to get to the bottom of it. That’s why we target organized crime and its violence on an ongoing basis. It’s one of our priorities at Kamloops RCMP and that is (to) keep the citizens of Kamloops safe.”

As the investigation continues into the deaths of Mathieu and Gill, two other organized crime related homicides go unsolved — the shooting death of Red Scorpions co-founder Konaam Shirzad in September 2017 and the death of 35-year-old Troy Gold in October.

Neither of those deaths have been directly linked with the most recent homicides. 

“There is no change in any specific ‘name-brand’ crime group in Kamloops at this time,” Shelkie said. “So, we’re focusing on the people that could be involved with just the criminal activity. So, organized crime is whenever the people who are involved in this type of activity get together, and it’s usually for the purpose of selling drugs, and with that often comes violence.” 

No new information has been released on a burned out car that was located in Barnhartvale shortly after the homicides. Police are conducting forensic testing, but at this point can’t confirm if the vehicle is linked to the crimes.