Ling Su was at home the evening of June 13, struggling to put her two little ones to bed, when Christopher Alexander Serrano lay bleeding in the street, just a block away.
Su hadn’t heard anything unusual, but she could see the emergency vehicle lights flickering from across the back alley while she was in the shower.
“Never did it cross my mind that it would be murder, a shooting,” she said.
Serrano was involved in an altercation, possibly inside a vehicle, at about 9:30 p.m. in the 3900 block of Forest Street, just one street over from Su’s. Neighbours heard shots, police were called, and someone performed CPR on Serrano, but he was pronounced dead about an hour later in hospital.
Su learned what happened from her husband, who heard about it on the 11 p.m. news.
Serrano, 29, was a self-professed drug dealer who slit a stranger’s throat with box-cutters after an argument at a Vancouver nightclub. The man survived, and Serrano spent two years in jail. Su has no idea why he was in her neighbourhood that night – his home address is in Coquitlam.
The killing left Su with a sense of unease and a stronger desire to connect with her neighbours at the annual Spruce Street block party. Su feels it’s even more important to continue the block party tradition so people know each other and their neighbourhood and can tell when something is out of place.
“The home is where the heart is, and if these events happen too close to home, we’re going to have to adjust and be wary of new faces,” Su said.
This year’s block is set for Saturday, Aug. 6, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the stretch of Spruce Street between MacDonald and Smith avenues, which covers roughly 50 homes. Neighbours are volunteering to organize the event, and they have money from the Vancouver Foundation’s neighbourhood small grants program. The murder is a topic of discussion among the group, and they feel it’s important to keep the block party tradition alive and the community safe, according to Su.
“No one is immune to violent individuals coming into neighbourhoods, but community block watch or neighbourhoods that speak up, that’s important for me. I want to be able to continue to walk around the neighbourhood and feel comfortable,” Su said. “These are real issues that touch real residents at a basic level, our homes, our security.”
Antonia Beck, executive director of the Burnaby Neighbourhood House, knows how important it is to connect with one’s community. Much of her work focuses on bringing people together through block parties and community events, much like the one Su and her neighbours are organizing.
“I think knowing your neighbours is really key in together creating that community of safety and sense of belonging and sense of pride,” Beck said. “You don’t want this to make everybody afraid and retreat into their homes. You want people to feel comfortable in their neighbourhood.”
As for the murder investigation, Jennifer Pound, spokesperson for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said police are still interested in hearing from residents who may have seen or heard something. She also said police believe the shooting wasn’t the result of the neighbourhood.
“In some cases, people who are engaged in illegal activity will pick quiet and respectable neighbourhoods to make a meet,” Pound said. “It would be speculation to say what exactly this meet was, but we can say it was not associated with that neighbourhood. It was a quiet street, and we think that neighbourhood was picked for that reason.”
Pound said police are always supportive of programs like Block Watch, where people keep an eye out for criminal activity.
“There’s always strength in numbers, too. If you are a vigilant neighbourhood, you know what’s fitting into your neighbourhood and what isn’t,” she said.
The tip line for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is 1-877-551-4448.
Correction: This story originally listed the block party date incorrectly. It's actually Aug. 4.
