Kamloops RCMP investigate homicide at downtown hotel

Kamloops RCMP are investigating the first homicide of the year in the Interior city, after a man was found dead in a hotel roomon Saturday night.

At 7:50 p.m. PT,police were called to the Howard Johnson motelonColumbia Street, across the street from the Kamloops courthouse, after shots were fired. When they arrived, aman in his 20s was found dead in one of the units.

The RCMP believe the suspect and the victimwere known to each other. They saidthis was a targeted shooting related to the illegal drug tradeand that there is no immediate safety concern for the general public.

The Serious Crime Unit is investigating with the help of officers who attended the scene.

Police say the crime scene as well as two rooms at the Star Lodge on Columbia Street, about two kilometres southwest of the Howard Johnson motel, are being held and searched as part of the investigation.

Police sayno arrests have been made in relation to the shooting.

"The investigation is still in its very early stages," Kamloops RCMPConst. Crystal Evelyn told CBC.

According to Kamloops RCMP, the detachment has witnessed an increase in violence and disturbances associated withlow-end drug dealers.

"Although the circumstances surrounding this murder are still under investigation, it's the same type of violence we have experienced in Kamloops before, involving low-end participants of the illegal drug trade who use violence as a business practice," said Sgt.Nestor Baird of the Serious Crime Unit.

RCMP are asking anyone who may have information in regards to the shooting to call the Kamloops RCMP Detachment at 250-828-3000 or Crime Stoppers.

"Any information at all, you know, maybe they heard a sound in that area, maybe they saw something that was a little unusual even around that time," Evelyn said.