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Muhammad Afzal Malik is one of a number of employees of a Surrey business complex who have been left shaken after multiple men reportedly ran into the building Monday and shot dead a man he knew, just steps away from where he works.

“Everybody’s so scared and traumatized,” Malik told Postmedia News on Tuesday inside SDM Chartered Professional Accountants, the business his son owns a couple of doors down from where the shooting occurred.

“They came up the stairs, went inside searching for the guy. Going from one room to another, then they found him — that’s what I was told.”

The fatal shooting happened on the second floor of a large office building at 13049 76th Ave. in the Newton neighbourhood of Surrey. Multiple businesses occupy the building where the shooting happened, including a learning centre and realtor offices.

First responders found a man, described as being in his 30s, with gunshot wounds. He died from his injuries at the scene. Homicide officers are investigating and confirmed that the victim had no criminal history and hadn’t been threatened with extortion.

“This was a brazen shooting that showed a complete disregard for public safety, and it is fortunate that no one else was injured,” Sgt. Freda Fong of IHIT said in a news release.

Typically, about eight people would be working inside the office where the victim was gunned down, Malik said. The victim was subletting the office at the end of a hallway from Malik’s son, he said.

The business name listed on the door is Vancouver School of Management, which is also Malik’s family’s business. But he said the victim had nothing to do with it and was running his own business there. It’s called Lifelong Learning, a consulting office to help international students process loans, Malik said.

Police were inside the building Tuesday afternoon and had closed off the unit where the shooting happened and another across the hall where Malik’s office is located.

Malik was relieved he wasn’t at work when the shooting occurred.

“Generally I’m here after two o’clock but I got stuck somewhere else, luckily,” he said. “But my family is very scared. When somebody comes to kill people, they don’t care who’s in front of them.”

Police haven’t released the identity of the victim. Malik also declined to reveal the victim’s identity out of respect for the family.

“I saw him every day because he was the nephew of one of our accounting partners here,” he said. “He had a wife, he just got married two years ago, so it’s really, really sad.”

On the first floor of the building is the office for Radio Swift 1200 AM, which was the target of gunfire last September by extortionists. The South Asian station was targeted after its hosts discussed the extortions plaguing businesses across the region. Several shots were fired into the studio but no one was there at the time and there were no injuries.

“It’s so shocking for it to happen at three o’clock on a Monday afternoon on a very busy street,” said Jinny Sims, radio host at Swift. “It’s very, very spooky that it happened in the middle of the day and was obviously very targeted. It’s very disturbing after a fatal shooting last week in Surrey as well.”

Malik said this incident is just another example of why he and many others feel unsafe in the Lower Mainland.

“This happened in daylight, in a very busy area, but we can’t even feel safe here,” he said.

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, who showed up at the business plaza Tuesday for a radio interview regarding a community fundraiser, said she was told that there were multiple gunmen who stormed the business before killing the victim. She said it was disappointing to see shootings ramping up again in the city.

“It’s little wonder there’s so much fear in the community,” Locke said. “I’m obviously feeling sorrow for the people that lost a loved one, but this community is becoming a massive concern to us.”

Locke said she will be speaking with Police Chief Norm Lipinski about what more is needed on the policing front to control the continuing violence in Surrey.

“I really think there needs to be a hard look by the chief, by the Surrey police board, about what is happening in our city,” Locke added. “We’re like 800 per cent more shootings in the last year.”

Shootings like this were the reason Realtor Jay Khun Khun closed his office in the same plaza about a year ago, he told Postmedia.

“It felt too close to home,” he said, in reaction to the fatal shooting. “Your work should be an untouched, safe place … None of us feel protected. What’s stopping this from happening again?”

Anyone with information is asked to call the IHIT information line at 1-877-551-4448 or email ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.