Police, coroner analyze scene of multiple homicide in Surrey, B.C.

Police released few details Sunday, but continued to search for clues at a Surrey, B.C., apartment where six men were found dead on Friday.

A member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police outside the scene of a multiple homicide in Surrey, B.C., on Sunday.
(Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Meanwhile, the bodies were removed from the crime scene Sunday afternoon for further examination at the coroner's office and two vehicles were removed from the building's parking lot by police as part of their investigation.

Police said little Sunday about the case other than they have neither identified all of the victims nor notified all of their next of kin, the CBC's Melanie Nagy reported. 

The six men were found dead Friday afternoon on the 15th floor unit of a high-rise condominium at 9830 East Whalley Ring Road after someone called 911 about a suspected gas leak.

"We know at this time that this is not a random act," RCMP Cpl. Dale Carr of the Integrated Homicide Investigations Team said Sunday.

"We still haven't really shored up who these individuals are," he said. "We're not 100 per cent on a couple of people. So for us to come out and start pointing fingers or putting labels on individuals, it'd be a bit premature."  

Local media reported that some of the dead men were known to police and that their deaths may be related to a gang war over B.C.'s lucrative drug trade.

"Whether or not it's a drug war, or whether or not it's something else … we're open to all those possibilities," Carr said.

Over the weekend, investigators were still analyzing the complex crime scene in the small apartment unit and said that it was too early to say how the victims died.

Carr said the bodies were found in "various locations" and there was a lot of blood at the scene. It was unclear how long they had been in the apartment, although he said it wasn't "a great length of time."

Police believe the victims may have been targeted, and have not ruled out the possibility of a murder-suicide, a domestic dispute or a gang-related incident.

But he also said that it is still too early in the investigation for police to release many details about what they are calling a multiple homicide in a single apartment.

Despite an initial report of a gas leak, Carr said officers did not smell any odours in the building when they arrived that indicated anything untoward had taken place.

There are no suspects yet in the investigation, he added.

Residents who live in the building told CBC News that police spent Friday night knocking on doors, asking them if they had seen any suspicious activity, and advising them to keep their doors locked.

All occupants were evacuated from the 15th floor and it was placed under police control, Carr said, adding it may be another day before the police wrap up the crime scene investigation.