Vancouver's fourth homicide this year — a 19-year-old man killed Saturday night in the city's south side — was likely a targeted shooting, say police.

Vancouver Police Const. Tim Fanning said city's fourth homicide of 2008 is likely a 'targeted shooting.'
(CBC)

Const. Tim Fanning of Vancouver police said a passerby saw the victim — identified as Pritpal Singh Virk of Richmond, B.C. — lying on the street around 11 p.m. local time.

The man was rushed to hospital, but died a short time later of gunshot wounds.

"This is targeted because of the style of the attack,'' said Fanning. "We will be looking into whether this shooting is connected to any other shootings in the Lower Mainland over the last several months.''

Fanning said it appears Virk was visiting friends at a nearby house and was shot after he stepped outside.

The incident has shaken 16-year-old Kiran Dhaliwal, who was heading home with her parents Saturday night, when she saw the young man's body, and the police and paramedics. She said she is tired of the killings in her community.

"It's scary and it disgusts me,'' she said. "We're still young and we have people who actually want to be something in our lives. And little kids, they see all this going on and they think there's no hope for them either.''

Meanwhile, Fanning said Virk was known to police but he said he did not have any details.

Fanning could not confirm a published report that Virk was a passenger in a rented SUV that plunged into the Nechako River near the northern B.C. community of Vanderhoof last May after fleeing during a routine RCMP stop.

According to the report, Virk was pulled from the water and treated for hypothermia.

The driver of the vehicle, 19-year-old Daljit Sandhu of Richmond, was killed but his body was not recovered from the river for several weeks.

During that incident, police pulled the car from the river and found 170 marijuana plants inside. Virk was charged with obstruction and a 22-year-old man driving an accompanying car was charged with producing and trafficking in a controlled substance.

Investigators are asking any potential witnesses to Saturday's shooting who haven't been interviewed to call the major crime section of the Vancouver police.

With files from the Canadian Press