An 85-year-old man in Burnaby, British Columbia, was killed by what homicide investigators believe was a stray bullet while he was inside his own home, turning an overnight street shooting into a case centered on a victim who had no apparent connection to the violence outside.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has identified the victim as Chang Yong Cho. Burnaby RCMP first received reports of shots fired near 18th Avenue and Humphries Avenue shortly after 1:30 a.m. on August 30. By the time officers arrived, a vehicle believed to be connected to the shooting had left the area.
Police searched for victims but did not initially find anyone linked to the gunfire. The connection emerged later that day. At about 4 p.m., officers were asked to conduct a welfare check at an apartment building on Kingsway near Britton Street, roughly a block from the area where the shots had been reported.
Inside the apartment, officers found Cho dead from a gunshot wound. Investigators now believe a bullet fired during the earlier incident traveled into his home and struck him. IHIT has described him as an innocent victim who appears to have had nothing to do with the people involved in the shooting.
The case is especially stark because the usual language of public safety — avoiding a confrontation, leaving a dangerous area, staying indoors — offers little explanation for what happened. Cho was already inside his residence. According to investigators, he was simply in the path of a bullet fired somewhere outside.
IHIT has taken over the homicide investigation and released Cho’s name and photograph with the family’s involvement in an effort to move the case forward. Investigators say they have identified a group of youths who may have been involved in the shooting or may know what happened.
Police have publicly urged those young people to speak with investigators. They have also appealed directly to parents who may know that their children have information. The goal is to establish the role of each person present and determine who fired the shot that ultimately entered Cho’s apartment.
Investigators are asking for video from the area around 18th Avenue and Humphries Avenue between 12:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. on August 30. Dashcam, CCTV and doorbell footage could help reconstruct the movement of vehicles and people before and after the gunfire.
The homicide remains unsolved, and police have not announced charges. That makes careful language important: the group of youths identified by investigators has not been publicly assigned specific criminal responsibility. Some may be witnesses rather than participants.
For Cho’s family, however, the central fact is already irreversible. A shooting that began on a street reached a private apartment and killed a man who investigators say was not part of the dispute. The next break in the case is likely to depend less on forensic theory than on people who know who was there that night deciding to tell police what they saw.