Last Saturday's (September 8) shooting at the upscale Kitsilano restaurant Quattro on Fourth in which Gurmit Singh Dhak, 29, an Indo-Canadian gangster, and a 21-year-old woman were shot by masked men while they were celebrating a birthday with a big group of guests did something that the Indo-Canadian community just dreads and hates.
It brought back Indo-Canadian gangsters into the spotlight. And they always seem to attract MUCH MORE mainstream media coverage than any other group - white or East Asian or whatever - although they are less powerful than the others.
Anyway, when people get shot or killed, that naturally attracts media coverage - and if it happens to be Indo-Canadian, they just love to go crazy about it.
It was fortunate that nobody else in the crowded restaurant was injured. The masked men with handguns fired through the restaurant window just after 11 p.m. and the victims had their backs to them.
Vancouver police say Dhak knows who wanted him killed, but the victims have not been cooperating with police. Dhak actually left the hospital although he had wounds to his abdomen, but returned because he was in great pain. The female victim had surgery to remove bullet from her leg.
Although some news reports seemed to suggest that a drive-by shooting at a house in the 900-block East 54th Avenue at 9 p.m. last Saturday might be linked to the restaurant incident, Vancouver Police Constable Tim Fanning told The VOICE that they had no information connecting the incidents.
Dhak became a real figure of interest, thanks to his long and colourful criminal past whose details can be garnered from the reasons for judgment by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Allan Thackray back in 2003 in the February 7, 1999 murder outside Vancouver's Madison's nightclub on Richards Street. Dhak was jailed for manslaughter in the death of Doan Minh Vu, 19, because he positioned his vehicle and operated the windows so a passenger, Cuong Manh Nguyen, could shoot Vu.
Dhak was found guilty of second degree murder by a jury, but the Court of Appeal reduced the verdict to manslaughter.
Dhak and Nguyen had been in Madison 's nightclub when a melée erupted and they were kicked out. They drove to the front of the nightclub in Dhak's vehicle and shot Vu dead with a Glock 17.
Nguyen was sentenced to life imprisonment, a mandatory sentence, with no eligibility for parole for 10 years.
The judge, in deciding Dhak's sentence, noted: "The Crown called as a witness Detective Constable (Doug) Spencer, an expert in gang activity and culture in the Lower Mainland. Detective Spencer testified that Mr. Dhak had several "associates" that together were a gang known as Billy's Crew. Where this evidence led, in the Crown's submission, was the linking of Mr. Dhak to a shooting of five males at the New Lucky Garden Restaurant. The link came to light when, after the shooting at Madison's, a police investigator opened the air bag compartment in the 4-Runner. Inside were 3 balaclavas and 2 loaded handguns. Ballistic tests matched the handguns with the shooting at the New Lucky Garden Restaurant, a shooting in which the perpetrators wore balaclavas.
"However, the individuals who perpetrated the New Lucky Garden Restaurant shooting were all described as Asian. Detective Spencer said that Mr. Dhak is not Asian and was not one of the persons directly involved in the restaurant shooting. Furthermore, Detective Spencer agreed that while he has had innumerable occasions to interview Mr. Dhak, no charges have ever been laid as a result, no weapons have ever been found on Mr. Dhak and no evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Dhak was ever discovered."
The judge also pointed out that Dhak was 24 years old with a grade 10 education. His parents ran a laundry on Dunbar Street in Vancouver and he had worked there from an early age.
He also noted that "in 1994 Mr. Dhak was convicted of mischief and given six months probation. On 15 August 1994 he was convicted of assault and of theft under $1,000 and received a sentence of 12 months probation. He breached his probation and was given 60 hours community work service together with another six months probation.
"Mr. Dhak was convicted of possession of cocaine for the purposes of trafficking on 1 April 1998. He was given a conditional sentence of 18 months. On 23 May 1998 he was arrested, charged with assault and convicted on 19 August 1998. He had been incarcerated since his arrest and was given a sentence of one day and probation of 12 months."
The judge also noted that Dhak was on probation when Vu was killed and the probation order required him "to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for the next year." But Dhak "failed to absorb that message."
The judge noted that Dhak's parents had written to the court on his behalf and they were optisimistic about his future. He also received supportive letters from other members of Dhak's family and from his fiancée. He said that their were no reports presented to the court about Dhak's present state of mind and therefore he could not find as a fact that Dhak could not be rehabilitated from his penchant for crime. He added: "(Dhak) asserted to me that he has seen the light and letters indicate that he will marry upon his release from prison and that he is motivated to opening some form of business. It might be argued that this is slim evidence but it is the only evidence and I am more inclined to accept it than reject it. Mr. Dhak's track record causes concern and must be measured against his assertions of remorse and desire to follow a lawful life in the future."
For now, that future looks VERY GRIM!
In fact, in 2005, Dhak was targeted when his vehicle was shot at and police pulled him over near Club Uranus, a strip joint on East Broadway. He was confrontational with the police.
LANGLEY SHOOTING
Even as the media was going all crazy about the Quattro on Fourth shooting, a brazen broad daylight shooting near a Langley school on Tuesday morning set off another round of news frenzy. My first reaction was to find out if it involved any Indo-Canadians, and I was terribly relieved, in a way, when the RCMP told me it did not.
RCMP later said that the
At 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday, Leonard Pelletier, who police say is an associate of the Hells Angels motorbike gang, was on his way to drop off his 14-year-old son at D.W. Poppy High School. Langley Cpl. P.J. (Peter) Thiessen said: "For reasons unknown the male felt it was unsafe and fled the area at a high rate of speed. He was being pursued by an unidentified vehicle with two or three suspects inside. The driver of the Hummer made a right turn onto 47 Avenue from 236 Street, lost control, collided with an innocent motorist and came to rest in a ditch on 47th just west of 236 Street. The innocent motorist was unharmed.
"The suspects from the pursuing vehicle stopped and opened fire on the occupants of the Hummer. The suspects fled the scene. The adult driver sustained non-life threatening injuries and his 14-year-old son escaped injury.
"At the time of the incident there were numerous students and parents walking to the local high school and elementary school which are only blocks apart. There was a lock down of the two schools for fear on escalation of the incident. The lockdown lasted approximately 45 minutes without further incident.
"The victims of this incident are well known to the police as a result of their ongoing activity within this community. That includes the 14-year-old victim as well as a 16-year-old brother who police were required to make contact with immediately following this incident. That contact result in the 16-year-old brother being tazered as a result of his interaction with police and arrested. He remains in custody.
"This was a targeted incident involving individuals with gang affiliation within Langley and the Lower Mainland. The individuals responsible for this incident clearly had no regard for community safety and put the lives of many innocent people at risk.
"Langley RCMP continues to investigate and asks anyone with information who has not already spoken to the police to call Langley RCMP at 604-532-3200 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS."
Can you imagine the mainstream media's reaction if the guys involved in the above incident were Indo-Canadians?!
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