Gangster and bodyguard shot dead at Burnaby hotel

[grammafreddy]

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/two-confirmed-dead ... -1.1054533

Two confirmed dead after Burnaby hotel shooting
CTV British Columbia
Published Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 12:52PM PST
Last Updated Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 7:51PM PST

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has been called to probe a double-murder that was committed in broad daylight Monday at a busy Burnaby hotel.

The victims appear to have been targeted in a hail of gunfire that left the lobby of the Executive Hotel on Lougheed Highway marked by bullet holes and littered with broken glass at around 11:30 a.m.

Witnesses report hearing as many as 20 shots fired, and Sgt. Jennifer Pound told reporters it was miraculous that nobody else was hurt in the shooting.

Police respond to a shooting at the Executive Hotel in Burnaby. Nov. 26, 2012. (CTV/Scott Hurst)

“It’s brazen, it’s cold and we have many, many investigators on scene looking into this,” Pound said.

Hotel management say staff and guests were shaken up the incident, and banded together inside as police investigated the scene.

Authorities have yet to confirm any potential suspects or a motive in the murders.

The identities of the victims are being withheld pending notification of next of kin, but The Vancouver Sun is reporting that gangster Sukh Dhak and his body guard were killed.

Members of the Dkahk-Duhre crime group have been targeted at a number of bloody gang hits in Metro Vancouver over the last year, most recently in the parking lot of a Port Moody recreation centre in May.

Anyone with information on Monday's shooting is asked to call police at 1-877-551-IHIT or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 if they wish to remain anonymous.

With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Scott Hurst

YAY!!!! One more gangster bites the dust.

[KL3-Something]

I wonder if this means they get to conclude the Bacon file now.

[grammafreddy]

Which Bacon file - there are so many

[grammafreddy]

Well-known gangster Sukh Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel are the victims of the brazen targeted double murder

By Kim Bolan and Kelly Sinoski, The Vancouver Sun November 26, 2012 10:32 PM

METRO VANCOUVER -- After months of well-publicized threats to his life, gangster Sukh Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel were shot to death in a brazen targeted execution at a busy Burnaby hotel Monday morning.

Sources in both law enforcement and organized crime confirmed to The Vancouver Sun that it was Dhak and his constant companion Mantel who were slain in front of shocked workers at the Executive Hotel on the Lougheed Highway about 11:30 a.m.

Both men were well-known to police and those involved in the B.C. gang scene.

Dhak, 28, is currently on trial in B.C. Supreme Court for conspiracy and trafficking ecstasy back in 2008. The trial had been adjourned Friday until this morning.

Mantel, 30, was due in Surrey Provincial Court in January for charges of dangerous driving and obstructing a police officer laid in 2010 after an encounter with the Gang Task Force.

The burly, tattooed Mantel would often escort the diminutive Dhak through the Vancouver Law Courts, walking with him from the parking lot to the sixth floor where Dhak’s trial was held.

When the pair arrived at the security gate with an X-ray machine and metal detector, Dhak would go through, while Mantel would leave before he could be screened.

Police have warned repeatedly over the last year that Dhak and his associates could be targeted by rivals after a series of tit-for-tat retaliations that began when Dhak’s brother Gurmit was gunned down outside Burnaby’s Metrotown Mall in October 2010 in another brazen daylight execution.

The violence against Dhak and associates in the Duhre crime group escalated after the August 2011 murder of Red Scorpion gangster Jon Bacon and wounding of Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach.

In fact, Duhre gang leader Sandip Duhre was shot to death in a similar fashion in front of guests and hotel staff in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Centre on Jan. 16, 2012.

The trail of violence led all the way to Mexico where Dhak associate Tom Gisby was gunned down last April. Both Dhak and Mantel attended Gisby’s south Surrey funeral two weeks later.

Police sources say gang tensions are escalating again after a period of relative calm across the Lower Mainland.

And they believe the latest deadly shooting will spur on more violence.

Sgt. Jennifer Pound of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said there were a few people around the hotel at the time, but no one else was injured or killed.

“I’m always amazed there aren’t more casualties in a shooting like this,” she said.

When police arrived at the hotel Monday, one of the victims was lying just outside the building where shattered glass littered the pavement. The body of the second victim straddled the doorway of the large centre.

It is not known whether the shots were fired from within the hotel or outside, said Pound, but police believe the two men were targeted. Two unidentified blond women, one covering her face, were escorted out of the hotel and past reporters by police.

Witnesses say they heard several gunshots.

Chris Hashimoto was just getting out of bed in his condo behind the hotel, on Halifax Street, when the shots were fired. At first, he mistook the noise for nearby construction.

“It sounded like heavy machinery the first couple of times, and after the few shots, the rapid succession, I thought no — that sounded like gunfire,” Hashimoto said from his balcony overlooking the scene.

The hotel, on Lougheed Highway between Gilmore and Madison, is situated near a cluster of strip malls with popular restaurants like the Cactus Club and Boston Pizza and big box stores like Staples.

At a neighbouring Napa Auto Parts store, business carried on as usual.

Dan Bulmer was just leaving the parking lot for a trip to the North Shore when he heard what he thought was a jackhammer. He only found out about the shooting when he returned an hour later. One of his colleagues reportedly gave CPR to one of the victims.

A continuing education centre just down the hill from the hotel’s main entrance also remained open Monday, although one teacher said she immediately locked her door after students told her they heard the shots.

Student David Wang said he only heard about the shooting after he tried to cross the police tape on his way to the school Monday afternoon.

“It scares me,” he said. “Who knows where the shots will go?”

By early afternoon, police had roped off the hotel and were scouring the grounds and around parked cars.

The back door of the hotel was unlocked but the stairs to the lobby were blocked by yellow police tape.

Several chairs and a camera could be seen at the bottom of the stairs.

Both Dhak and Mantel are believed to have been living in Surrey. Police have not said why they were in Burnaby or whether they were meeting someone at the hotel.

The Sun has learned that some longtime associates of Dhak may have recently abandoned his crew in order to have a truce with rivals.

Const. Doug Spencer, a gang specialist who works with the Odd Squad, knew Dhak and his older brother for years, even getting Gurmit to videotape a haunting message before his death about the risks of gang violence.

“The message to kids here is that now we have two brothers gone,” Spencer, who is with Transit Police, said Monday.

Like his brother, Sukh Dhak wanted out, Spencer said, but couldn’t find a way.

“He is getting warned every second week that people are trying to kill him. He knew. He wanted to go,” Spencer said.

“Once you get in and things start happening, it is like a bad ride that you can’t get off.”

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with a file from Zoe McKnight

[797hauler]

you think they'd all just stay at home, there all being shot in front of hotels...

[SurplusElect]

Let's not celebrate.

Someone dies - it's a job opening. Next time it could be you that gets accidentally shot with crossfire in a hotel lobby.

[Queen K]

I also was wondering about the hotel connection. And these aren't the sleazy rundown fleabag hotels one likes to think of as gangster activity hotbeds. So where is all the security camera tape? Isn't there hours and hours of it just waiting to be analyzed? Or that just in movies?

Dhak was currently on trial?

So why was he running around again?

With repeated threats to his life one would think he'd be safer in jail, ferried between jail and courts by real RCMP officers.

Can anyone explain how someone with continued threats, who wanted out, was running around to hotel lobbies?

This whole thing stinks to high heaven. Normally and I mean under normal circumstances my usual reaction is 'scum killing off scum" but SurplusEd has pointed out the obvious, all this shooting in highly public places makes me think an innocent by-stander could have been shot.

Oh, one more thing, in a society where the slightest off beat thing is caught by everyone with an camera in their iphone, it's funny that murderous hitmen are almost never photographed, even accidentally.

[797hauler]

I also was wondering about the hotel connection. And these aren't the sleazy rundown fleabag hotels one likes to think of as gangster activity hotbeds. So where is all the security camera tape? Isn't there hours and hours of it just waiting to be analyzed? Or that just in movies?

Dahk was currently on trial?

So why was he running around again?

With repeated threats to his life one would think he'd be safer in jail, ferried between jail and courts by real RCMP officers.

Can anyone explain how someone with continued threats, who wanted out, was running around to hotel lobbies?

This whole thing stinks to high heaven. Normally and I mean under normal circumstances my usual reaction is 'scum killing off scum" but SurplusEd has pointed out the obvious, all this shooting in highly public places makes me think an innocent by-stander could have been shot.

Oh, one more thing, in a society where the slightest off beat thing is caught by everyone with an camera in their iphone, it's funny that murderous hitmen are almost never photographed, even accidentally.

I think the hotels, are being used by these gangs that have a mole... they set something up, so you know where he/she is and when to expect them to come down.(ruthless cause there could have been kids there, and not just kids but other citizens)

In regards to him running around, i think thats why the bodygaurd came into play. and knowing his life was on the line, he should of moved away and came back for trials. where he could have asked for a sherriff escort if he truly felt his life was in danger.

[Queen K]

He was "currently on trial". How many well known gangsters currently ON TRIAL get their freedom to run around, hither thither to hotel lobbies?

Of course this was set up. What could have been the alternative? It's not like some hitman accidentally saw him and made an impromptu decision to go for it.

A camera was found at the bottom of some stairs.

Well. What kind of camera? Was it a hotel security camera? A guests camera (where they dropped it and ran?), what's on it? I'd like to see that downloaded on a hard drive.

I'd like to know how many hotels knowingly take gang money. Didn't Surrey have a big publicity drive a few years ago? "Just say NO to gang money."

[797hauler]

While awaiting trial or sentencing these guys should be at home with moniters, a way for police to keep track. If your a KNOWN gang member then you get the ankle braclet...And I never did hear hear about the JUST say no to gang money..i was living on the coast in 2008-09 and never heard about it. its probably a little hard for busnisess to keep track of whos who, and would you really want to JUST say NO to these guys? Im a bigger guy covered in tattoos and I wouldnt say NO..

[Queen K]

There was an entire thread devoted to that very topic, but no matter, the majority said just what you did.

We counted five RMCP vehicles in the photo provided on Castanet. What a waste of resources.

All they had to do was keep this guy in freaking jail. It's not like someone had to build a new jail for him. Now instead of keeping Dhak in jail, three cheap meals and a escort to the court and back, we've got huge resources devoted to an endless who-dunnit.

[797hauler]

There was an entire thread devoted to that very topic, but no matter, the majority said just what you did.

We counted five RMCP vehicles in the photo provided on Castanet. What a waste of resources.

All they had to do was keep this guy in freaking jail. It's not like someone had to build a new jail for him. Now instead of keeping Dhak in jail, three cheap meals and a escort to the court and back, we've got huge resources devoted to an endless who-dunnit.

agreed..

[normaM]

things will be quiet for awhile as they vie to replace him.

[dakoda62]

2 less *bleep* who cares, killem all

[Bsuds]

I'd like to know how many hotels knowingly take gang money. Didn't Surrey have a big publicity drive a few years ago? "Just say NO to gang money."

Sure, every time someone checks into a Hotel they should ask them, "Is this gang money?"