Torched SUV now linked to deadly Vancouver shooting, police say - Action News
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Torched SUV now linked to deadly Vancouver shooting, police say

The white Dodge Durango SUV was found in flames hours after Manoj Kumar, 30, was shot inside a car in Kitsilano. Friends say he'd just finished work at a nearby restaurant.

Friends and family of Manoj Kumar, 30, say he had no ties to gangs and had just started a new job

Vancouver police said the white Dodge Durango had an older style roof rack, which can be seen in the attached photo from a surveillance camera. (Vancouver Police Department)

Vancouver police have now linked a deadly shooting in Kitsilano to an SUV found burning nearbyhours after the killing.

ManojKumar, 30, was shot to deathwhile sitting in a car parked on Burrard Street between West 4th and 5th avenues around 8:30 p.m. PT on Tuesday.

Friends and family say Kumar had just started a new job at a nearby restaurant, and had no connections to gangs.

Police said witnesses reported seeing a vehicle flee the area after shots were fired. Around midnight,a white Dodge Durangowas found in flameson West 22nd Avenue at Yew Street a little more than two kilometres south of the shooting scene.

Investigators said the vehicle had been set on fire. Investigators seized the SUV and it'snow considered a vehicle of interest in the homicide investigation.

On Monday, police said they now believe the SUV is linked to Kumar's death. Investigators are asking anyone with dashcam video from the night of the shooting to call police, especially if they were driving in the Kitsilano or Arbutus areas of the city between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. PT.

Tarps cover an SUV containing a shooting victim as a coroner takes notes in Vancouver early Wednesday. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

People who know Kumar say he had just left work at the Hideaway Eatery, where he'd recently started working as a chef, when he was shot. Friends say he normally called his spouse from the car before heading home.

Last week, Const. Jason Doucettesaid Kumar wasn't known to police and didn't "have any obvious connections to a criminal lifestyle."

Doucette told reporters the shooting "appears to have all the hallmarks of a targeted shooting," but that police were still working to determine a motive for the Vancouver man's death.

The victims' friends suspect the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.

With files from Tina Lovgreen