Targeted shooting victim deserves to be remembered as caring young woman, uncle says

The uncle of a young woman killed in a targeted shooting in Surrey, B.C., says his niece had some troubles but he wants people to know she was loved by the people who knew her.

"You hear about it on the news — somebody was shot and killed. And, you know, I believe we've become so desensitized," Ryan Morris said from his home in Chilliwack, B.C.

"These people just become a story, they're no longer people in the eyes of the community." 

Morris, 49, says his niece, Shana Harris-Morris, 23, was the person who died in a shooting near the Whalley and Guildford neighbourhoods last week. 

At the time, police said they had responded to a report of gunshots just before 7:30 a.m. PT. When officers arrived, they found a man and woman inside the home, both suffering from gunshot wounds. 

But Morris remembers her differently. 

"She was just a really, really beautiful soul," he said of his niece. "She was that girl that always wanted to give you a hug."

Harris-Morris grew up in Surrey with six siblings, including a twin sister, and also had two half-siblings. She was smart, Morris says, but struggled in school with a learning disability.

"She looked at the world through a different set of eyes than a lot of us do," he said. 

Morris says he and his niece had been close when she was growing up, but they had drifted apart in the past couple of years as she struggled with addiction and had some run-ins with police. 

Her family had tried to get her help.

"Addiction is a very powerful thing," he said. "That lifestyle that you're wrapped up in, you know, it's like a beast. It consumes you." 

Morris is helping the family raise funds for his niece's funeral. He says they are hoping to get a tombstone to "have a nice place to remember her."

He hopes the funeral will take place by the end of the week.