A man has been charged following a shooting in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood last week.
Vancouver police said that on Sept. 6, shortly after 7 a.m., officers were called to a store near Main Street and 16th Avenue after a man reported being shot in the leg.
Shooting victim and longtime store employee Mohammad Ali told Global News he was sitting behind the counter when he heard the store buzzer sound, and a man who he recognized entered the doorway.
Ali said he had seen the same man involved in an argument with his boss over a taxi three hours earlier, when he arrived for his morning shift.
Once inside, Ali said the suspect asked, “Where are those people who were chasing me?” and appeared to have a gun hidden under his jacket.
Ali didn’t believe it could be real but within a few seconds, he said there was a big shot.
“(It) feels like the whole shop broken, came on me and my leg is separate from my body and I have never experienced this pain,” Ali recalled in an interview.
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Bleeding, Ali said he was able to call 911 before running outside, where Good Samaritans rushed to his aid.
“I said please help me out, I’m dying,” Ali said Monday.
Ali, identified in a GoFundMe campaign, was transported to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
After an investigation, including a review of CCTV footage, Vancouver Police Department Major Crime detectives identified a suspect.
Later that same day, Vancouver police received a report from Kamloops RCMP that the suspect in the shooting had been taken into custody in Kamloops on an unrelated matter.
The BC Prosecution Service has now approved charges of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon against Victor Sorensen-Avila.
Sorensen-Avila allegedly had a gun on him when he was arrested in Kamloops on Sept. 6, and remains in custody on charges of possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition, possessing a firearm without a licence or registration, carrying a weapon or prohibited device with ammunition concealed, careless use or storage of a firearm, and breaching a release order.
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The 32-year-old had been released from custody on Aug. 15, after being charged with assault with a weapon in connection with an alleged incident in east Vancouver a day earlier.
Crown counsel is applying to revoke Sorensen-Avila’s bail on that unrelated charge.
He remains in custody in Kamloops awaiting a bail hearing, Vancouver police said.
“Any act of gun violence in a busy neighbourhood like Mount Pleasant is deeply concerning,” Const. Darren Wong said in a statement.
“While this incident was disturbing for local residents and business owners, we want to reassure our community that a suspect was quickly identified and remains in custody. We do not believe there is any ongoing threat to the community.”
“Thank God, so far I’m alive,” said Ali, who is recovering at home with his wife and three young children.
The 20-year H&Z Market employee, who said a doctor told him he was lucky because the bullet entered and exited his right leg and didn’t touch his left limb, doesn’t understand why the suspect shot him.
“I suffer, maybe I forgive him, but I want to know why he did (it) and I don’t want him to do (it) again with other people,” said Ali.
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