Abbotsford's police chief writes letter to parents of gangsters

Abbotsford'schief of police is writing letters to parents of the young men that are involved in a bloody gang feud in his city.

"Your son's life is in critical danger," Bob Rich wrote.

"If he stays involved in gangs, he is at serious risk of being killed."

Roughly 18 letters, written in English and Punjabi, will be hand delivered by police officers to parents whose sons are part of the Townline Hill conflict.

"Our objective is threefold," said Const. Ian MacDonald.

"One is to give fair warning to the people that are still involved in this that bad things can happen. One is to extend an olive branch to say that we realize many of the young men and their families might be involved in a predicament, and we want to help them with that. Most importantly, we want to see change."

MacDonald says the Townline Hill feud started in 2014 as a small-time beef between two groups of teens and men in their early 20s.

Since then, it has evolved into a war over drug turf.

Police connect five deaths to a feud, including the killing of 74-year-old grandfather Ping Shun Ao, who was an innocent victim hit by a stray bullet.

Will it work?

Abbotsford police have reached out to the families of gangsters in the past with varying degrees of success.

"People might be envisioning a group of people that are uncaring or maybe anti-police, but those aren't the people we have been dealing with," MacDonald said.

"Some of those parents have either changed their residence for the entire family to other parts of Canada or have removed their sons physically from the Lower Mainland in order to safeguard them and prevent further violence."

MacDonald says other families have been less cooperative.

The letter