Madison Erhardt
UPDATE: 4:40 pm
The RCMP bomb squad remains on site and investigates a presumably undetonated improvised explosive device.
The bomb squad pushed the area around the crime scene back on arrival.
Pandosy Street and Groves Ave remain cornered with police tape.
UPDATE 2:45 PM
The RCMP Explosives Disposal Unit has arrived at the crime scene and is expanding the evacuation zone.
People are being pushed back at the north end of the perimeter, onto Pandosy St. and Groves Ave.
Photo: Madison Erhardt
UPDATE 12:50 p.m.
Kyle Gianis survived another assassination attempt.
Kelowna RCMP confirms that one of the men shot outside a restaurant on Pandosy Street Saturday night was Gianis, who only survived other assassination attempts in March.
Gianis was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and has since been discharged from the hospital.
The other victim, a 25-year-old Surrey man, remains in hospital with “life-threatening injuries”.
“We have reason to believe that this was a targeted attack on these two men,” says Insp. Beth McAndie of the Kelowna RCMP.
“Mr. Gianis poses a threat to our community and the public at large because of his criminal activities and associates, and we are using all of our resources to investigate this latest incident.”
Witnesses told of a man who escaped from the scene in a silver SUV. No arrests were made at this time.
“When investigating the crime scene, the frontline officers found what is believed to be an undetonated improvised explosive device,” says Cpl. Jocelyn Noseworthy, Kelowna RCMP Media Officer.
“The police immediately cordoned off the area. It will remain closed until the officers of the RCMP Explosives Disposal Unit have safely handled the device. “
The RCMP bomb squad is also investigating an unrelated explosive device found in a house in West Kelowna on Sunday.
Gianis is believed to have gang connections and he survived a number of attacks on his life. The shooting on Saturday was the fourth attempt on him since 2017.
The most recent took place outside of Global Fitness on Burtch Road in Kelowna in March. He was injured by gunshots.
His home in West Kelowna was also raided by the Combined Special Forces Enforcement Unit in March.
In 2017, he was the target of a gunfight outside a restaurant in Langley that killed his friend Tyler Pastuck. David Tull was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison for conspiracy to murder Gianis in the 2017 shootings.
Then, in 2018, nurse Paul Bennett was killed in Surrey when an assassin looking for Gianis walked into the wrong house, the Vancouver Sun reported at the time.
Gianis was sentenced to 13 years in prison in Washington State in 2008 for smuggling methamphetamine precursors into the United States. He was transferred to Canada and released on parole in 2013.
In 2007, the CBC reported that Gianis was the resident of a house who was shot and killed two nights in a row.
Photo: Cindy White
A canopy covers a Mercedes-Benz on Pandosy Street on Sunday morning.
ORIGINAL 10:45 a.m.
Pandosy Street in Kelowna’s Mission District will remain closed on Sunday morning following a targeted shooting in the area on Saturday evening.
The shooting occurred shortly before 7 p.m. on the busy street in front of the Zabb Thai restaurant, injuring two men. Photos from the crime scene show a body lying in the door of the restaurant. The two men were taken to the hospital by ambulance.
A witness told Castanet they heard between five and seven gunshots. The condition of the victims is currently unknown.
The RCMP called the shooting “targeted”, but police have not yet reported any arrests. A witness told Castanet that he saw the gunman exit the scene in a silver Ford Flex parked on nearby Newsome Avenue.
The officers remain on site near KLO Road and Pandosy Street on Sunday morning collecting evidence. On the west side of Pandosy Street, a white Mercedes-Benz has been covered by a canopy.
Castanet reached out to the RCMP for more information on the investigation.
