Surrey Six massacre

Last updated
Surrey Six massacre
Location Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Date19 October 2007
TargetThe Lal Crew
Attack type
Gang massacre
Weapons Handguns,
Deaths6
PerpetratorsRed Scorpions
Convicted2 of first-degree murder
1 of second-degree murder
1 of conspiracy to commit murder
1 of counselling murder

The Surrey Six massacre was a gang-related massacre in Surrey, British Columbia on 19 October 2007.

Contents

The Lal crew

The so-called Lal crew were a small gang based in unit 1505 in the Balmoral Tower condo in Surrey. [1] The Lal crew consisted of Edward "Eddie" Narong, one of the founders of the Red Scorpions who broken away to found his own gang; Michael Justin Lal and his younger brother, Corey Jason Lal; and Ryan Bartolomeo. [1] All four had criminal records. [2]

The one with the most serious criminal record was Narong who had been convicted of murder in 2000. [3] The Thai-Canadian Edward "Eddie" Sousakhone Narong and the Vietnamese-Canadian Quang Vinh Thang "Michael" Le, both of whom lived in Coquitlam, had beaten to death a Korean-Canadian, Richard Jung, who was bullying them. [3] Narong and Le had founded the Red Scorpions gang while at the Willington Youth Detention Center. [3] Between his release in October 2003 and his murder in October 2007, Narong had been charged 30 different times, mostly related to drug trafficking and weapons charges. [3] Narong had able to have most of the charges stayed for one reason or another, but was due in court to face charges of assaulting a police officer after he attacked a policeman in May 2007. [3] In 2007, Narong had a dispute with Le and the Bacon brothers who joined the Red Scorpions in late 2006, and broke away from the Red Scorpions to form a new gang. [3] Both of the Lal brothers were career drug dealers who had been members of the Independent Soldiers. [3] Michael Lal had been convicted of drug trafficking in 2006 and Corey Lai was facing chargings of drug trafficking following his arrest earlier in 2007. [3] The Lal brothers resented the way that the Hells Angels had violently taken control of the Independent Soldiers and broke away to join forces with Narong. [3] Bartolomeo had been arrested in December 2006 and was due in court soon to face four counts of drug possession with the intention to traffic. [3] Unit 1505 was a condo owned by the real estate agent Ceasar Tiojanco who had rented it out to Raphael Baldini of the Red Scorpions who in turn had sub-let the unit to the Lal crew. [4] The Lal crew had been in a dispute with Jamie Bacon of the Red Scorpions about how much "tax" they owned him for the right to sell drugs in Surrey. [5]

Two of the victims were innocent of any crime. The 55-year old Ed Schellenberg was a committed Mennonite from Coaldale who had done missionary work in the United States, Poland and the Northwest Territories. [6] The journalist Jerry Langton wrote: "He stood just five foot eight. He was bald and stout and did not carry himself like a tough guy. Because he wasn't. No, he was a charmer. His oversized red handlebar moustache, ready smile, twinkling eyes and quick wit had always been enough to get him out of trouble in the past". [6] Schellenbeg was described as a hardworking repair/maintenance man for gas fireplaces who was honest and reliable. [6] On 19 October 2007, Schellenberg along with several other gas technicians were checking the gas fireplaces in all of the units in the Balmoral Tower for any possible flaws as part of an annual inspection, a requirement imposed by the condo corporation. [6] Several gas fireplace technicians n did not want go into Unit 1505 whose tenants were considered disreputable and Schellenberg volunteered to do a job that no-one else wanted to do. [4] The 22-year old Chris Mohan was the son of Indo-Fijian immigrants who had no involvement in crime, and was devoted to working out in the gym and his girlfriend. [7] Mohan was described as friendly, funny and outgoing by those who knew him. [7] On 19 October 2007, Mohan who lived opposite Unit 1505 was going out to play basketball. [7]

The massacre

On the afternoon of 19 October, Schellenberg was inspecting the gas fireplace in Unit 1505. [8] A drug dealer, Sophon Sek, led the killers to Unit 1505 and knocked on the door of Unit 1505, which allowed the killers to enter the unit. [9] Sek had been paid $25, 000 to lead the killers to unit 1505 and helped them gain access. [10] A group of Red Scorpions that consisted of Matthew James Johnston, Cody Rae Haevischer, and another man who cannot be named because of a court order entered Unit 1505. [11] Mohan happened to see the killers in the hallway as he was going out of his unit and was dragged into unit 1505. [12] All six men were forced to face the floor with their heads covered and were shot. [11]

Reaction

The Balmoral Tower Highrise building where the massacre took place. Balmoral Tower Highrise (April 2009).jpg
The Balmoral Tower Highrise building where the massacre took place.

The massacre received much media coverage and generated much shock and horror, all the more because two of the victims were innocent by-standers who were shot down in cold blood merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. [13] The massacre made the Bacon brothers infamous in British Columbia as the Lal Crew was "essentially exterminated", which showed how dangerous the competition for the control of the drug trade in the Lower Mainland had become. [14] The massacre improved the underworld reputation of the Red Scorpions. [15] Eileen Mohan, the mother of Chris Mohan, became a powerful spokeswomen for justice for her family as she spoke often on television, radio and in public rallies demanding that police bring the killers to justice. [16] The Hells Angel Ron Lising had been videotaped beating a man in 2005, but at his trial in November 2007, the judge gave him a $600 dollar fine for assault. [17] Mohan spoke about the Lising trial, which she used as an example of the weak responses of the authorities to the gangsters in the Lower Mainland who rarely went to prison for their crimes. [16] On 3 February 2008 at a rally in the Bear Creek Park in Surrey, Mohan criticized the Crown for an inability to bring the killers to justice. [18]

Investigation

Sergeant Derek Brassington of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was assigned as the lead investigator for the Surrey Six massacre. [19] A Mountie described as a "cop's cop" who was married to a fellow Mountie and who worked for 14 years in the major crimes unit in Surrey, Brassington was widely considered to be the best detective in British Columbia. [19] Langton wrote about the Surrey Six massacre: "The killers had more chutzpah and ego than they had any technical knowledge of how best to go about assassination. They let behind a huge mess of DNA and other evidence. But real investigations are not at all like the magic they show on TV and in movies. To build a compelling case from even the sloppiest murder scene takes lots of hours of hard work and no small amount of luck". [20]

Evidence released after the convictions of the police detectives in charge of the Surrey Six case in 2019 showed that instead of pursuing the killers behind the Surrey Six massacre, the Mountie detectives in charge of the case spent a disproportionate amount of their time in drunken debauchery. [21] The elite police team spent much of their time being intoxicated at various bars and strip clubs while making sexual advances on female witnesses, which nearly ruined the case against Jamie Bacon. [21] Two of the officers convicted claimed that their job stress made them incapable of rational thinking and the riotous bacchanalian excess that the squad engaged in was a result of their stress-induced mindlessness. [21] Brassington's superior, Inspector David Attew of the RCMP, tried very hard to seduce the girlfriend of one of the witnesses for the Crown, which nearly caused the man to break off his agreement to testify against Jamie Bacon. [21] The detectives in charge of the Surrey Six case all faced charges of fraud for billing the Crown for overtime pay while they instead drinking in various bars and strip clubs. [22]

On 3 April 2009, Denis Karbovance of the Red Scorpions turned himself in to the police and confessed to killing Chris Mohan, Ryan Bartolomeo and Michael Lal. [23] Karbovance stated that hearing Eileen Mohan speak on television persuaded him to confess to his involvement in the massacre. [24] On the basis of his confession, on 4 April 2009, the police arrested Cody Haevishcher, Matthew Johnson and Jamie Bacon for the massacre. [25] Later on, Michael Le and another person known as "person x" due to a court order were also arrested for the massacre. [25] On 26 November 2009, Sophon Sek was arrested for involvement in the massacre. [26]

Between June–December 2009, Brassington had a torrid affair with the former girlfriend of Jamie Bacon, a woman known as "Jane Doe 1" due to a court order who agreed to testify for the Crown against Jamie Bacon. [27] It was revealed after his guilty plea in 2019 that Brassington had billed the Crown for overtime pay while he was in fact drinking and having sex with "Jane Doe 1" at the luxury hotels the couple stayed at in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Victoria, Halifax and Vancouver between June–December 2009. [27] The police misconduct later almost ruined the case against Jamie Bacon as his lawyers argued that much of testimony against him was perjury as the detectives were sleeping with the witnesses against him. [19] The statements from the two of the two detectives who sought to explain their heavy drinking on the job as due to being allegedly incapable of rational thought left the evidence gathered by the first investigation wide open to attack from Jamie Bacon's lawyers. As a result, the police were forced to essentially restart the entire investigation anew, costing the Crown thousands of dollars and wasting countless hours of police time. [21] In 2010, "Jane Doe 1" revealed her affair with Brassington after she became pregnant with his child and he refused to divorce his wife to marry her. [19] The lawyers for Jamie Bacon moved to have the charges dismissed against their client under the grounds that her testimony was probably perjury made under Brassington's influence. [19] Brassington was charged with obstruction of justice as was his superior Inspector David Attew, Constable Paul Johnson and Constable Danny Michaud whom the Crown alleged knew about Brassington's affair with "Jane Doe 1". [19]

Karbovanec pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for 15 years in prison. [28] In November 2013, Le made a plea bargain with the Crown where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder against Corey Lal in exchange for the Crown dropping the charges of first degree murder against him. [29] Le was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but Justice Austin Cullen gave Le credit for his time served in jail awaiting to be tried, which shortened his sentence. [29] On 2 October 2014, Haevishcher and Johnson were convicted of six counts of first degree murder for their role in the massacre. [30] In December 2015, Sek made a plea bargain with the Crown where he addmited that he helped the killers enter unit 1505 in exchange for serving one year in prison. [10]

Justice Kathleen Ker who was overseeing the case against Jamie Bacon ordered a stay in 2017 because of the police misconduct "contravened fundamental notions of justice and undermined the integrity of the justice system to the degree [the judge] could not permit the case to be tried." [31] On December 1, 2017, Ker ordered a stay on the proceedings against Bacon because the way that Brassington and the other detectives handed the case. [22] Ker stated she had serous concerns about "...the manner in which the police handled aspects of privileged and confidential information". [22] The Crown appealed, and the appeals court ruled that the case could continue. [31]

In 2019, Brassington, Attew, and Michaud were all found guilty of various charges of misconduct for their handling of the Surrey Six case. [21] On January 19, 2019, the disgraced Brassington made a plea bargain with the Crown, where he made guilty pleas to charges of breach of trust and compromising the integrity and safety of a witness in exchange for a lesser sentence. [21] At his sentencing, Brassington cried hysterically in the courtroom as he admitted that his affair with "Jane Doe 1" had ruined his career, led to his marriage ending in divorce and the estrangement of his children, saying: "As a dad I shouldn't have done this. As a father I shouldn't have done this. As a cop I shouldn't have done this". [21] Brassington stated about "Jane Doe" that: "I treated her like a girlfriend. I didn't mean to fall in love with her". [21] The journalist Rhianna Schunk who attended the sentencing described Brassington as a broken man who between his sobs seemed to have much self-pity for himself as he sought to portray himself as a victim, claiming that the affair was caused by work-related stress. [21] Brassington maintained amid his sobs and tears that his job stress was such that he had no choice but have sex with an attractive 22-year old model despite his best intentions. [21] Michaud and Attew were convicted under the RCMP Act for failing to "maintain law and order" by not reporting Brassington's affair to his superiors despite knowing about it. [32] The Crown dropped the charges against the Mountie Paul Johnson on 5 March 2019 as he was dying from Hodgkin's lymphoma. [33] The Surrey Six case ended on July 8, 2020, when the Crown made a plea bargain where the first-degree murder charges against Jamie Bacon were dropped in exchange for him pleading guilty to counselling murder regarding the massacre. [31]

Books

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References

  1. 1 2 Langton 2013, p. 10-12.
  2. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 11-12.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Langton 2013, p. 11.
  4. 1 2 Langton 2013, p. 10.
  5. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 193.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Langton 2013, p. 9.
  7. 1 2 3 Langton 2013, p. 8.
  8. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 9-10.
  9. ↑ Bolan, Kim (15 December 2007). "Sophon Sek denied bail, facing deportation". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  10. 1 2 "Sophon Sek pleads guilty to leading Surrey Six murderers to their victims". CBC News. 18 December 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  11. 1 2 "Surrey Six murder trial: 6 shot with heads covered". CBC News. 29 September 2013.
  12. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 7-8.
  13. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 140.
  14. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 140-141.
  15. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 177-178.
  16. 1 2 Langton 2013, p. 142.
  17. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 142-143.
  18. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 143.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Langton 2013, p. 245.
  20. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 177.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Schmunk, Rhianna (30 January 2019). "Surrey Six Mountie's misconduct involved boozy affair with a potential witness". CBC News. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  22. 1 2 3 Lindsay, Bethany (2 December 2017). "Decision to stay charges against Jamie Bacon in Surrey Six killings prompts outrage". CBC News.
  23. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 190-191.
  24. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 194.
  25. 1 2 Langton 2013, p. 191.
  26. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 209.
  27. 1 2 Fraser, Keith (30 January 2019). "Former Mountie had sex with Surrey Six witness in cities across Canada". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  28. ↑ Langton 2013, p. 244.
  29. 1 2 Bolan, Kim (18 December 2013). "Red Scorpions gang founder gets 12 years for Surrey Six slayings". The Victoria Times-Colonist. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  30. ↑ "Surrey 6 murders: Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston found guilty". CBC News. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  31. 1 2 3 Proctor, Jason (9 July 2020). "Jamie Bacon pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in Surrey Six killings". CBC News. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  32. ↑ Bolan, Kim (28 April 2023). "New Surrey Six hearing expected to consider police behavior laid out in past rulings". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
  33. ↑ Lazatin, Emily (5 March 2019). "Crown orders stay of proceedings in final corruption case of Surrey Six murder investigation". Global News. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
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