NOTORIOUS criminal is recovering in hospital after being shot in the stomach in a leafy Wicklow town

Gardai are still trying to establish a motive for why Philip 'Philly' O'Toole was shot at around 12.45am on Thursday in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.

He was taken to St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin after the incident where his condition is described as stable.

Sources say that O' Toole (31) is refusing to co-operate with gardai.

gunman

"He said he would rather die on the side of the road than help gardai with their enquiries," said a source.

O'Toole, from Fassaroe in Bray, Co Wicklow, is understood to have wrestled with the gunman before being shot in the stomach.

The Herald can reveal that O' Toole -- who has multiple previous convictions -- is a major crime figure in Bray, Co Wicklow with strong connections to a local drugs gang. Local sources say he had just returned to Bray in recent months, having spent some time in England. He has received warnings in the past that his life was under threat.

O' Toole was arrested by gardai investigating the shooting of Finglas criminal Glen McGrath (41) outside the Cappagh House pub in Finglas last December.

McGrath -- a former associate of slain gangland boss Paul 'Farmer' Martin -- survived but was left in a critical condition after being shot three times the chest and stomach.

The pub shooting is linked to a bitter prison row between gangsters from Finglas and Bray. O'Toole was one of eight people arrested. All were later released without charge.

Senior sources have rubbished claims that a group called the Criminal Action Force were involved in the shooting.

"Mr O' Toole has many enemies -- and every avenue is being explored. But no one has any knowledge of any Criminal Action Force," said a source.

cocaine

O' Toole has numerous previous convictions and in March, 2008, he received a four-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a sawn off shotgun in Santry, north Dublin, in April 2007.

O'Toole told gardai that he had been holding the gun for another person but was on his way to dispose of it.

His barrister told Dublin Circuit Court that he was acting under the direction of another person whom he feared.

The barrister added that O'Toole was struggling with cocaine and alcohol abuse.

50 dead in casino arson as Mexico drug violence spreads

The northern Mexican city of Monterrey, once a model of industrial prosperity and relatively insulated from the drugs war that has gripped the country for five years, was reeling yesterday after gang members set fire to a two-storey casino in the city's centre killing at least 50 people trapped inside.

Witnesses said that the carnage at the Casino Royale began at roughly 4 o'clock on Thursday afternoon, a relatively quiet time for business at the cards tables and in its bingo salons, when gunmen stormed in shouting for people to leave before they began dousing the facility with what appeared to be gasoline.

Instead of heading for the exits, many terrified patrons and casino employees rushed further into the facility only to be trapped when the bandits ignited the liquid. The governor of the state of Nueva Leon, Rodrigo Medina, said on television that the death toll had reached at least 53 and many more had suffered injuries.

The rescue teams retrieving charred bodies found many crammed into the facility's toilets. Pandemonium erupted outside as relatives of those thought to be inside begged for information on missing loved ones with, at first, little information from the authorities.

The attack was confirmation that Monterrey, which lies 100 miles south of the border with the Texas in northeast Mexico, has now joined the scores of other parts of the country where safety from the drugs wars can no longer be guaranteed. More commonly victims of the violence are found hanging from motorway overpasses in the city. The once popular tourist city of Acapulco earlier last week saw violence surge when five headless bodies were found dumped on its streets.

In Monterrey, security has steadily degenerated as turf wars have escalated between two of the country's largest gangs competing for the lucrative drugs export trade to the United States: the Zetas and the Gulf cartels. Businesses in the city are often targeted for extortion with warnings that, unless they pay their dues to the cartels, they risk having their establishments burnt down. It was the second time the Casino Royale had been hit, the last time when gunmen sprayed it with bullets in May. No one was hurt in that attack.

Even as flames engulfed the casino and smoke was seen billowing from its windows, the authorities tried to penetrate the conflagration to save those inside, at one point commandeering heavy road construction equipment to break down its walls. For many, however, the attempts came too late.

It is one of the worst atrocities committed against an entertainment facility anywhere in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched his country-wide crackdown against the cartels in 2006. On Twitter, President Calderon said the assault was "an abhorrent act of terror and barbarism" that requires "all of us to persevere in the fight against these unscrupulous criminal bands".

Many of the victims of the casino attack appeared to be middle-aged and elderly women who were most often to found inside on a weekday afternoon. Among those allowed to look at some 40 bodies after the initial emergency was over was Francisco Tamayo, 28, who told reporters he was looking for Sonia de la Pena, his 47-year-old mother. "She's probably here," he said, dialling her number on his cell phone.

While the authorities have heralded the capture mostly this year of a succession of top cartel bosses, Mexico has paid a high price for Mr Calderon's anti-drugs campaign, with the death toll somewhere over 41,000 over five years.

 

RCMP In Kelowna, B.C., say they are deeply concerned after arresting a man they believe has links to organized crime.

 

Officers say the 29-year-old Alberta man was carrying a loaded .45 calibre handgun when he was picked up early Wednesday morning, waiting outside a downtown Kelowna nightclub.

Staff Sgt. Terry McLachlan says it appears the man has gang connections in Alberta.

He says the suspect remains in custody and will appear in a Kelowna courtroom on Wednesday to face a charge of carrying a restricted weapon.

McLachlan says the arrest in the city’s downtown entertainment district causes deep concern because it comes just ten days after Red Scorpions gang leader Jonathan Bacon was gunned down in a targeted hit outside a Kelowna hotel.

No arrests have been made in connection with the Aug. 14 shooting that also injured several people travelling with Bacon, including a full-patch member of the Hells Angels.

Police are investigating whether there are gang ties at play in a drive-by shooting that shook the family living in the shot-up Langside Street home

A suspect was quickly caught by police. A tactical team happened to be nearby about 7 p.m. Monday and spotted a truck taking off right after at least one shot was fired, busting a large hole in the front window of the home in the 600-block of Langside, Winnipeg police said.

Officers chased the truck, which was stolen over the weekend, police said. Minutes later it crashed into another truck at Selkirk Avenue and Aikins Street.

The innocent victim, a man driving the other truck, wasn’t badly hurt, police said, however, that wasn’t the case for the suspected shooter.

The 19-year-old man was initially in unstable condition but he has since stabilized, police said. He is facing charges, but sources say he suffered spinal injuries and his medical condition is not improved enough yet for the charges to be formally laid, so police have not released his name.

No one was hurt in the shooting. Four people — including a five-year-old boy — were home when at least one shot was fired from what a source said is a shotgun that police recovered, along with ammunition, inside the stolen truck.

The home’s tenant has seven children and she’s glad only one was home at the time. The boy happened to be at the back of the house when the shooting happened.

Her younger children were out visiting relatives and an older son is currently behind bars for reasons the woman declined to discuss. Sources say the 19-year-old man who is in jail has ties to the Mad Cowz. The woman said her son is no longer in that street gang.

“I guess we’re OK — we’re alive,” said the woman, who did not want her name printed out of fear of retribution. “It makes me angry that they shot up my house — I have kids ... What kind of person does that? It’s ridiculous.”

Police say it’s sheer luck no one was hurt in the shooting.

“This is another situation where I’m extremely thankful that I’m not acknowledging death or serious injuries. It’s very surprising, but again, very thankful that we’re not,” said Const. Jason Michalyshen, a Winnipeg police spokesman.

Michalyshen said detectives are investigating whether the shooting is linked to gang activity, but he could not be more specific other than saying police do not believe it is connected to the feud between the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels.

Investigators also have not established whether Monday’s shooting is linked to three others in the West End in a little over a week, Michalyshen said.

Another home has been shot up in Sydney’s west, making it the seventh shooting in six days

Another home has been shot up in Sydney’s west, making it the seventh shooting in six days, but the occupants have chosen not to cooperate with police.

Police are also investigating if a fire at a nearby office and warehouse was connected to the drive-by shootings.

A home in Francis St, Fairfield, took four bullets to a front wall about 1am (AEST) on Wednesday, a police spokeswoman told AAP.

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No one reported the incident until 1.30pm, and the occupants were reluctant to speak to police officers who visited the premises.

On Tuesday, a fire broke out at a nearby business in Lisbon St, Fairfield East, about 8.20pm and took three hours to extinguish.

The two-level administration area of the warehouse suffered significant damage.

Police have deemed the fire suspicious, and the police spokeswoman said detectives were working to determine if the incident was related to the shootings.

NSW Police on Tuesday established Strike Force Restore, made up of local detectives and the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad (MEOCS), to determine if the drive-by shootings in the Fairfield and Merrylands areas were linked.But detectives say they have a difficult task ahead of them because some members of the community are afraid to come forward.Detective Superintendent Peter Lennon said on Tuesday that people in the community were too fearful to come forward.

"The one issue that we do have as a police force is that there are victims, witnesses and members of the community who know what has taken place, but will not come forward and assist the police," the Fairfield Local Area Commander said.

Shots were fired at a home and two vehicles parked outside premises in Lachlan Street, Bossley Park, about 1.45am (AEST) on Tuesday.Some of the bullets struck the garage, but a man, woman and their 39-year-old son inside the home were not injured.

The occupants told media they were innocent victims.

Police were also called to Merrylands Sesame Pizza shop about 10am on Tuesday after the owners arrived to find five bullet holes in their shopfront window.

About 9.35pm on Sunday, a man and two women were inside a house in Eddy Street, Merrylands West when a bullet came within a metre of hitting them.

Police suspect a bullet that struck a home 700m away in Leeton Street was a stray from the attack.

It’s understood that Mouhamed and Sleiman Tajjour, cousins of Kings Cross nightclub owner John Ibrahim, previously lived at the Eddy Street address.

The Tajjour brothers were convicted of manslaughter over the death of Robin Nassour, the brother of Fat Pizza actor George Nassour, in 2006.

The pair was released from prison in March last year.

A day earlier, a 25-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound about 11.30am when someone fired at a hairdressing salon in Fairfield.It is understood an argument had taken place in front of the premises on Saturday before the attack.

On Friday, about 6.30pm, two people escaped injury when someone fired on a house in Mallacoota Street, Wakeley, damaging a window and a parked car.

 

all-out gang war is erupting in South King County between members of rival Latino street gangs who have a "fight on sight" mentality,

all-out gang war is erupting in South King County between members of rival Latino street gangs who have a "fight on sight" mentality, raising the potential for violence in public places, according to King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg.

"We have an awful lot to do to deal with an emerging gang war in South King County," Satterberg said Tuesday. "When they encounter each other — in public or in private — it's likely to turn violent."

That's precisely what happened July 23, when rival gang members opened fire at a car show in Kent, wounding 12 people, said Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas. Later that night, a 13th person was injured in what Kent police have determined was a retaliatory shooting at an East Hill apartment complex.

Bullet casings found in the car-show parking lot matched casings found at the apartment building, Thomas said.

On Tuesday, Satterberg and Thomas, along with Chief Deputy Steve Strachan and Detective Joe Gagliardi, both of the King County Sheriff's Office, addressed the Metropolitan King County Council's Law, Justice, Health and Human Services Committee, updating members on the car-show investigation and detailing the emerging, street-level trends playing out in South King County.

Next week, the four men will go before the council's budget committee to discuss using money from a $1.5 million law-enforcement reserve fund established by the council last year after budget cuts that chopped 28 deputies and 16 deputy prosecutors from the county's payroll.

The money could be used to pay salaries of a couple deputy prosecutors, who would work directly with gang detectives — something all four said is crucial to ensure complex cases lead to arrests and successful prosecutions.

They also highlighted the need for additional programs aimed at preventing kids from joining gangs and intervening in the lives of at-risk youth especially vulnerable to gangs. "It's a battle for the hearts and minds of young people, and you can't aim too young," Satterberg said.

10,000 gang members

The Sheriff's Office estimates there are 140 criminal street gangs with more than 10,000 members in King County. Although overall crime has trended down in recent years, gang-related crime has increased 165 percent since 2005, according to a news release issued after the council meeting.

Satterberg's office has seen an increase in gang-related violence over the past three years, the release says. There were a total 29 gang-related homicides in 2008 and 2009, plus 200 reported gang-related shootings during that same period.

Gagliardi, who regularly testifies as a gang expert in criminal trials, said that in the past few years, investigators have seen gang activity increasingly shift from Seattle's Central District, South Seattle and the White Center area of unincorporated King County to cities like Auburn, Algona and Pacific.

Gagliardi said five or six Latino gangs are responsible for most of the violence detectives are seeing.

"They're second- and third-generation gang members," and the majority "are U.S. citizens who were born and raised in Washington. These are our children causing these problems," Gagliardi said, noting that most gang members are between 12 and 35 years old, though detectives have documented members in their 40s and 50s and know of one now 77.

Gagliardi said South King County has seen an influx in gang members from Eastern Washington and California coming here to establish territory and recruit new members.

Though Gagliardi declined to name the gangs to avoid glorifying them, Satterberg said the rivals are all splinter groups of the Sureños, a violent California street gang aligned with the Mexican Mafia.

Link to property crimes

Gang members are also "at the root of our property crimes," committing burglaries, robberies, car thefts and trafficking in stolen property, including firearms, to financially support their gangs, Satterberg said.

Detectives are making headway on the Kent car-show shooting, but it's a complex case, said Thomas.

Last week, a detective got a search warrant for more than 60 cellphones, and investigators are sifting through those phone records and working to pinpoint the locations of various gang members, he said.

"We had multiple shooters involved and it was mass chaos," Thomas said of the incident. "Even some of the victims who were shot don't want to cooperate or provide information to our officers" for fear of reprisals.

"My detectives tell me there ... is discussion about not if there is going to be retaliation, but when and where," Thomas said.

"We don't want to chase gunfire, we don't want to chase violence after it happens [because] these guys aren't just shooting at each other."

Jonathan Bacon, an infamous B.C. resident and alleged gangster

Jonathan Bacon wasn't always a bully or thug, say those who knew the notorious gangster back in high school, long before he embarked on a life of crime.

He was a mild-mannered youth, they add, a nice kid, an athlete with lots of friends.

Today, those same people are scratching their heads, wondering why the reputed leader of the Red Scorpions chose the life he did, a life that ended Sunday at age 30 in a hail of gunfire outside a Kelowna resort.

Jonathan Bacon was the oldest of three brothers the police have said form the nucleus of a gang heavily involved in drugs and guns trafficking. He and his youngest brother Jamie have survived assassination attempts in the past, but Jonathan's luck ran out over the weekend.

Police are searching for at least one gunman and have warned about reprisals, especially because a Hells Angels member and a member of another gang were in the same vehicle and were injured. Two women were also injured.

The Canadian Press tracked down a few of those who knew Jonathan Bacon in his teenaged years, when he was full of dreams and a student at WJ Mouat secondary school in Abbotsford, east of Vancouver.

Two people who knew him more than a decade ago agreed to talk but only on condition of anonymity.

"He seemed (like) a pretty nice kid," said one person who knew Bacon before he graduated in 1999. "He wouldn't be the type of kid you would expect to go down that road."

Back in the 1990s, he said, Bacon was a gangly student who wrestled, even though he wasn't particularly good at the sport.

He didn't even seem all that tough, the man said, but was instead just a "normal" youth. The acquaintance reserved the "bully" moniker for Bacon's middle brother, Jarrod.

Another person who knew Jonathan Bacon at WJ Mouat said the gangster's transformation was gradual.

He described Bacon as "mild mannered" and even kind of "small," big enough to be a good wrestler but not nearly big enough for sports like basketball.

He said Bacon was socially involved and outgoing and had two parents and money. He said most of Bacon's friends were athletes.

"I don't know if there was a turning point," he said. "There wasn't a particular instant. It was a gradual thing."

He said he doesn't know what motivated Bacon to embark on the path he chose but he wonders if it had something to do with notoriety.

He said that as the high school years began to wrap up, Bacon began to hang out with older, tougher kids, and the Abbotsford teen may have enjoyed the prestige those associations brought.

He said while he wasn't surprised by Bacon's violent death, he was saddened.

"It just sad," he said. "I wish, like, we could have maybe talked and kind of convinced him there's a better way to go than this."

 

Bacon brothers murder conspiracy widens

 
Eighth UN gang suspect charged in plot to kill Bacon brothers

private viewing of slain Abbotsford gangster Jonathan Bacon was held on Friday afternoon

private viewing of slain Abbotsford gangster Jonathan Bacon was held on Friday afternoon at Henderson's Funeral Home in Langley.

It was announced discretely, and there were about 30 friends and family in attendance.

Henderson's management said it has received no information about a funeral for Bacon, and suggested the family may conduct a private ceremony.

Henderson's would not confirm media reports that Bacon's body has been cremated.

Bacon, a high-profile leader in the Red Scorpions gang, was shot to death outside a Kelowna hotel and casino on Aug. 14.

Four people were in the vehicle with Bacon when he was killed. Full-patch Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Raich were both wounded, and a young woman was paralyzed when a bullet struck her neck. Another woman was also wounded.

Members of the Gang Task Force kept an eye on the viewing ceremony in Langley on Friday.

member of the Crips street gang fired a bullet that narrowly missed an RTD bus passenger after a brawl broke out on an eastbound Route 44 bus

Gang violence didn't soar with the heat this summer the way it did in 1993's "summer of violence," but a June shooting incident on an RTD bus is a clear indication that gangs remain a problem.

On June 25, a member of the Crips street gang fired a bullet that narrowly missed an RTD bus passenger after a brawl broke out on an eastbound Route 44 bus about 10:15 p.m., police said.

No one was hurt in the incident and police arrested the suspected shooter and two others after they boarded a westbound Route 43 bus.

About a dozen people, including those involved in the fracas, were on the first bus when Jammal Hopkins, 23, allegedly fired a shot from a pistol that went through the windshield, said RTD spokesman Scott Reed. It was the first time he knows of that someone fired a gun on an RTD bus or rail line.

"That is pretty brazen when you start seeing violence like that. That is a disregard for anybody," said Sgt. John Bronson, who was among police who arrested Hopkins and two others.

A police report of the incident describes Hopkins and those who boarded the bus with him as known Crips who were fighting with "possible Blood gang members."

"Initially the altercation was verbal and then escalated to a physical one where the unknown victim was assaulted and then a suspect attempted to shoot the victim in the head," according to a second police report.

Arrested were Hopkins, Tevon Dwayne Thomas, 19, and Julis Robinson, 30. The Denver gang unit works with the community as part of the Gang Reduction Initiative of Denver to tamp down gang violence, said Regina Huerter, executive director of the Crime Prevention and Control Commission. The effort is going well, she added.

But "there is always going to be ongoing conflict between different groups. Certain things may flare up but I can't say things have gotten worse."

Gangs also continue to be an issue in nearby Aurora, said Aurora police spokesman Bob Friel. There were 25 gang-motivated crimes in 2010, up from the 17 reported in 2009. However, incidents of gang-motivated crimes were down from the 40 reported in 2008, and 46 reported in 2007.

Gang-related aggravated assaults in 2010 accounted for 14 percent of total aggravated assaults, he said. Gang-related incidents are those that involve any gang members. Gang-motivated incidents are those committed by known or suspected gang members to further the intentions of the gang.

"It's important to understand that gang crime is just a small slice of the total crimes we investigate," Friel said.

Of 1,581 gang members tracked in 2010 by Aurora police, a significant number reside outside Aurora, and some outside the state, Friel said. Many are from Denver or elsewhere in the metro area.

With so many gang members, it isn't surprising that shots would be fired on a bus, said Leon Kelly of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives. "Some of these guys can't drive legally and they use public transit, and some of them go strapped."

Gangs linked to June shooting on RTD bus in Denver

all-out war on gangs

Cameron has declared "all-out war" on gangs, which he blamed for fuelling four nights of frenzied looting and said they were "a major criminal disease that has infected streets and estates across our country".

He has hired US "supercop" Bill Bratton to advise on tackling street gangs and has rolled out the use of court injunctions to stop gangs wearing colours of allegiance, congregating in certain places and using dangerous dogs as weapons.

Cameron also admitted that "social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our faces", and vowed to redouble efforts to tackle broken families, welfare dependence and educational failure.

But to those living and working with the problem, many question why it has taken so long for the government to notice -- during which time gangs are getting more and more violent, and their members younger and younger.

Sheldon Thomas, an ex-gang member who runs a mentoring programme in London, supports Cameron's assertion that British society is "broken".

"People like me have been saying this for decades," he said, adding: "People are angry, people are frustrated. There are no jobs, there is no aspiration."

He also accused Cameron of only acting on gangs now because shocking images of youths rampaging through relatively wealthy areas of London last week caused a national outcry, when successive governments failed to respond in the same way to up to 800 gang-related murders in the past decade.

"Are we now a nation that values materialism -- businesses and shops --more than the life of a 14-year-old kid who was chased down a road by several gang members who stabbed him 17 times for his BlackBerry?" he asked angrily.

Youth worker Patrick Regan, who has been advising Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on the recent violence, agrees that the government has failed to address the issue, although he is more hopeful that ministers can help.

"People have been warning for years that something like this could happen. I'm hoping there will be a long-term view of things, that we won't paper over the cracks," he told AFP.

Regan, the chief executive of youth charity XLP, cautioned however against any simplistic definition of gangs, and also warned that it was unlikely that organised criminal groups were entirely responsible for last week's riots.

"It wasn't all young people, and some were just purely opportunistic. Young people who just got wrapped up in it, crowd dynamics took over," he said.

He said he had spoken to his local authority who reported that known gang members had actually stayed home during the riots, "because they knew if they went out they'd get targeted by police".

One of the main pieces of research on British gangs, a 2009 report by the respected Centre for Social Justice thinktank, found that 170 gangs operated in London, although Thomas puts the number at 260, with 15,000 individual members.

Another 170 operate in the Scottish city of Glasgow, where police and local authorities claim to have cut violent offending among gang members by almost 50 percent in two years through a targeted community initiative.

Community workers are calling for more resources for proven mentoring and intervention schemes, and the US supercop, Bratton, warned this weekend that a police crackdown alone would not solve Britain's gang problems.

"You can’t just arrest your way out of the problem. It’s going to require a lot of intervention and prevention strategies and techniques," he said.

Although in the past gangs used to be defined by ethnicity, most are now about territory -- the Pembury Boys take their name from the Pembury housing estate in Hackney, east London, for example -- and they often control drugs within that.

Although they range from criminal organisations to groups of disaffected teenagers, a recent government report found that people join them for protection, a sense of belonging and status as well as a way of making money.

Gavin McKenna, 21, was in a gang in Newham in east London before he turned his life around. Although he carried a knife and robbed people, he told AFP that he and his friends weren't an organised group, "we were just trying to survive".

He grew up with an abusive father who left when he was young, had little money and his gang represented both a way of earning cash and a substitute family -- a story that is played out over and over among Britain's gang members.

McKenna says he has little faith in the government's new drive against gangs.

"I think they're going to patch it over, like they always do," he said, adding: "They don't care about us."

Three men from different gangs who were shot in Kelowna Sunday had formed a criminal alliance they dubbed the Wolf Pack

Three men from different gangs who were shot in Kelowna Sunday had formed a criminal alliance they dubbed the Wolf Pack, The Vancouver Sun has learned.

The loosely aligned pack consisted of Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon, who was killed in the brazen public shooting, Hells Angel Larry Amero, who was wounded, and Independent Soldier James Riach, who police believe was also shot, but fled the crime scene.

Kelowna RCMP pledged Monday to hunt down those responsible for the gangland shooting outside the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort in the middle of a sunny afternoon.

Const. Steve Holmes confirmed what The Vancouver Sun reported Sunday - that the 30-year-old Bacon died in a hail of bullets fired at a Porsche Cayenne in which he and other gangsters were travelling.

But Holmes would not confirm that Amero, 35, or Riach, 29, were also inside the vehicle, saying only that one of the victims was a "full-patch Hells Angel from the Lower Mainland" and that another man had not been located.

The other two victims were women. One was the niece of a Metro Vancouver Hells Angel chapter president, The Sun has learned.

Holmes said all the surviving victims are expected to recover.

Supt. Pat Fogarty of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said it would be wrong for investigators to assume that Bacon, the high-profile Abbotsford native linked to gang violence for years, was the only target of the shooters.

"In the case of this one, we can't say for sure who was the target," Fogarty said. "It is not surprising that any of the people in the car - particularly the men - would be targeted. This is not a shocker for us."

Said Holmes: "All indications lead police to believe that this incident was linked to organized crime and was targeted. The number of suspects involved in this shooting is not yet known."

Kelowna's head RCMP officer, Supt. Bill McKinnon, said experts from outside the province have been brought in to aid investigators.

And he said Kelowna is working with its policing partners across B.C. to identify suspects and head off retaliatory attacks.

"We expect that given the high profile and the very public nature of Sunday's incident that there is a heightened anxiety within the community and with the public. Our investigation is focused on finding those responsible and holding them accountable," he said.

McKinnon would not comment on whether police knew Bacon, Amero and other Metro Vancouver gangsters were in Kelowna over the weekend.

Nor would he say what intelligence police had about whether they were holding a meeting.

The fact that different gangs were together in a vehicle makes it difficult for investigators to determine if one or all of them were intended targets of the hit, Fogarty said.

Anti-gang police specialists are gathering as much information as they can about the shooting and any disputes that led up to it, he said.

The Wolf Pack alliance shows the fluidity of B.C. gangs who are constantly shifting their loyalties, police specialists told The Sun Monday.

Gang expert Const. Doug Spencer said gangsters form such alliances believing it will keep them safer.

But instead, they end up taking on the enemies of their new associates, including some they might not even know.

"They are putting themselves more at risk," said Spencer, a former Vancouver police officer who's now with the BC Transit Police.

Spencer said gang violence has been off the public radar because the number of murders is down, largely due to a series of high-profile arrests of leaders of the Red Scorpions and their rivals in the United Nations gang.

"It has been pushed back out of public view, but it is still there," he said.

He said it is hard to know whether Sunday's attack was planned or whether it was a crime of opportunity after rival gangs spotted each other in the casino.

Fogarty said the public should not be concerned about tit-for-tat retribution because police are constantly working to get ahead of plots to target rivals.

"If the public only realized how many of these we get in front of," he said. "This one slipped through the net."

He said police will do whatever they can to stem further violence, despite the drain on resources. That includes "duty to warns" - where police knock on the door of gangsters believed to be at risk and tell them someone is plotting against them.

Fogarty said there is nothing like the "fluidity of gangs and gangsters in this province."

People who are allies one day are enemies the next, he said, which is why people with three different gang tags would be riding around Kelowna together.

"This is clearly an alliance of people that we would not have seen together a couple of years ago."

Fogarty said that as soon as he heard about the shooting, he put together a provincial response plan. "We are more concerned about getting the intelligence flowing," he said. "If there is any, what kind of fallout will there be?"

He said the shooting of a full-patch Hells Angel shows that other criminals don't fear the biker gang the way they once did.

"Not that many people are afraid of them any more."

He said there are "testosterone-fuelled young bucks" out there willing to commit violent acts like Sunday's shooting.

"That is the way it is now," he said. "This is a particularly serious one - you are slapping the Hells Angels in the face."

McKinnon said police are negotiating with the B.C. government for continued funding for the 16 members of the Gang Task Force based in Kelowna.

"We are united in our efforts to keep our communities safe," he said. And he urged anyone with information about Sunday's shooting to call Kelowna RCMP or CrimeStoppers.

Police also put rumours to rest Monday that the gunmen had fled Kelowna by boat. But they are investigating the possibility that a burnt-out SUV found near Kelowna several hours after the shooting might have been used by the suspects.

McKinnon said "dozens" of officers are working on the case, though he wouldn't provide an exact number.

He said it is miraculous no bystanders were wounded or killed.

"Could innocent bystanders be injured? Absolutely. We are very fortunate that didn't happen in this case."

Red Scorpions

A violent drug-trafficking criminal organization, the Red Scorpions gang was formed about 2000, allegedly by Quang Vinh Le while he was incarcerated in Willingdon Youth Detention Centre.

Le was beaten by a group of Korean youths. In response, he called in more than 20 friends to help him in an attack that resulted in victim Richard Jung’s death. Le was originally convicted of second-degree murder in the death, but won a new trial on appeal, then pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Some of those also convicted went on to join the multi-ethnic street gang whose members sport scorpion tattoos and are involved in drug trafficking in Coquitlam and other Lower Mainland suburbs.

Among them was Eddie Narong, who also pleaded guilty to Jung’s manslaughter. Narong testified against some of his co-accused. Narong, 22, would die in the infamous Surrey Six murders allegedly committed by members of the Red Scorpions on Oct. 19, 2007, when six men were shot to death in a Surrey highrise. Two were uninvolved bystanders.

The Bacon brothers of Abbotsford rose to prominence in this gang with the eldest, Jonathan — killed this weekend in Kelowna — being identified as its leader. Jonathan was awaiting trial for drugs and weapons offences. In 2006, he was shot several times while in his parents’ driveway.

Jarrod Bacon is facing a number of drug charges.

The Red Scorpions have been involved in a long-standing war with the United Nations gang.

The United Nations Gang

The United Nations is another multi-ethnic gang. Police believe it was founded in the late 1990s by Clay Roueche, 35, of Chilliwack from among his high school friends. It developed a rigid organizational structure like the Hells Angels.

The gang has also made enemies of the Hells Angels and Independent Soldiers.

Roueche is serving a 30-year sentence in the United States for smuggling marijuana and cocaine across the border.

With Roueche in jail, Conor D’Monte, 33, an original member of the gang, was identified by police as leader of the UN. D’Monte is a fugitive after being charged in January with the 2009 first-degree murder of Red Scorpion member Kevin LeClair.

Charged with him is purported hit man Cory Vallee, 34, who has also fled.

These two, along with six others linked to the UN gang, are also charged with plotting to kill the Bacon brothers and their associates.

Independent Soldiers

This the newest of the major street gangs, formed about six years ago from mostly young Indo-Canadian males involved in the drug trade. Its roots go back to the notorious Bindy Johal, who was killed on the dance floor of a Vancouver nightclub in 1998. The gang has spread from Vancouver, with members operating in Kelowna and Calgary. It is believed to have developed links with the Hells Angels.

Hells Angels

While the likes of the Red Scorpions, the Independent Soldiers and the UN are referred to as mid-level players, police consider the Hells Angels a top-echelon criminal organization, seen in the same light as the Mafia and the Big Circle gang.

The Hells Angels have a highly structured hierarchy, with full-patch members at the top. Below are prospects, hang­arounds, official friends and associates working their way through the ranks.

The organization today has hundreds of chapters in more than 20 countries. It has a number of established clubs in the Lower Mainland and a number of puppet clubs such as the Prince George-based Renegades. However, new biker clubs linked to the Hells Angels have been sprouting up all over the province recently, from Campbell River to Fort St. John, as the gang seeks to maintain its status

Shots rang out in Surrey for the second time this week.

A group of three men were in a residential garage on Wednesday night when a masked attacker approached on foot. He opened fire, hitting one of the men—a 30-year-old—in the abdomen, police say.

The attack—the second shooting in Surrey since Monday—took place at around 10:50 p.m. on the 8200-block of 150 Street in Guildford, said RCMP spokesman, Cpl. Drew Grainger.

It’s believed that the garage door was open when the shots rang out, Grainger said.

The victim was taken to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the officer added.

The three men had been viewing a recently acquired bicycle in the garage when the shooter came in, firing off “several rounds,” Grainger said.

The officer said there “is no clear connection” yet between this shooting, the targeted attack in the same neighbourhood on Monday, or the fatal weekend shooting in Kelowna that claimed the life of Jonathan Bacon.

Grainger said it’s too early to tell if the victim was singled out by the attacker, adding that none of the three men were known to local police.

The attacker fled immediately after the shooting, he said.

“Neighbours may have observed something, or heard something,” Grainger said.

“We don’t have anybody in custody at this point,” the officer added.

The attacker is described as about 5-feet-6. He wore a black hoodie and a mask.

The major crime unit has taken over the “active” investigation.

We’re aware that people sense that a gang war is erupting.

“We’re aware that people sense that a gang war is erupting.”

In the Monday shooting, a single attacker believed to be on foot shot at a 32-year-old man as many as eight times as he got into a car, but the man escaped with minor injuries from bursting glass, Thiessen said.

“Based on [the target’s] background, it seems there is a level of gang affiliation,” he said.

Heed said retaliation is inevitable after Sunday’s shooting.

“You don’t take out the elder of the Bacons, you don’t injure a full-patch Hells Angel member and you don’t severely injure the niece of a president of a Hells Angel chapter and expect no retaliation,” Heed said.

To halt that cycle of violence, police need help from families, schools and the community as a whole, both Bhatt and Heed said.

“Police are asking for more resources, and yes, they need more resources. But if that’s all we do, the need for more and more police will simply grow over time,” Bhatt said.

Heed called for a “comprehensive strategy” to combat gangs, including a universal anti-bullying program in schools, early-intervention programs for families and meaningful opportunities for kids to get involved in their community.

“You are not going to arrest your way out of this gang situation that we have,” Heed said. “We’re just reacting to the problem. We’ve reacted to this problem since 1994 here in Vancouver. We still have this absolutely astounding display of public violence on our streets.”

Bhatt is project director for Acting Together, a federally funded research project aimed at preventing youth from joining gangs, based at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

The project has studied 403 Grade 8 students in Surrey and works closely with the Surrey school district’s Wrap Around Program, a one-on-one program that works with at-risk kids.

People working in the program have observed that only children, only sons and oldest sons are the most likely to get into trouble, Bhatt said.

“Essentially, these are these spoiled kids who have a sense of entitlement,” Bhatt said.

Although the first results of Bhatt’s five-year study won’t be released until October, she suggests early results show that kids with a sense of gratitude, altruism and of self-identity are less likely to follow a path of violence.

Bhatt cited a video about gangs made by Surrey high-school students working with Shaw TV and the Acting Together Program that will appear this weekend on Shaw TV as one example of how to meaningfully engage kids.

Meanwhile, Kelowna RCMP investigating this weekend’s fatal shooting are asking anyone with information about a newer, silver/green Ford Explorer seen in Kelowna this past weekend to call them.

Calling it “a vehicle of interest,” police said anyone with any information — where it was, which way it was going, its occupants — should call the Kelowna Detachment at 250-762-3300 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-5477.

Police also said the Kelowna investigation is moving forward with “numerous leads” and that the status of the people injured in the shooting is unchanged.

Police will be watching closely when slain gangster Jonathan Bacon is laid to rest

Police will be watching closely when slain gangster Jonathan Bacon is laid to rest, a spokesman for B.C.'s gang task force said Wednesday.

No funeral plans have been announced, but there will be a heavy police presence during the service, said Sgt. Shinder Kirk of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.

"There will be police presence for obvious reasons: One, to allow mourners that are attending the service to do so in peace, and the other is to dissuade anyone who may wish to create an issue."

However, police aren't expecting violence at the funeral, said Kirk.

"I certainly haven't seen that in my experience, but we are always conscious that we do have to be prepared for any eventuality," he said. "Any time you have a high-profile gang member that is killed and associates injured, it does become an issue of concern to us."

Bacon, 30, a notorious member of the Red Scorpions street gang, was gunned down outside the ritzy Delta Grand Okanagan Hotel in downtown Kelowna, B.C., on Sunday afternoon.

A gunman sprayed more than 30 bullets at the Porsche Cayenne SUV Bacon was riding in with four other people in front of horrified witnesses.

Larry Amero, a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang's White Rock chapter, was hit five times and remains in critical condition in hospital.

Another man, who police said may be a member of the Independent Soldiers street gang was hit, according to witnesses, and fled the scene, but has not been identified.

Two women, identified by friends as Lyndsey Black and Leah Hadden-Watts, were also hit.

Friends said Hadden-Watts underwent seven hours of surgery to remove a bullet from her neck, an injury that left her a quadriplegic.

Although he was well known for his ties to the Red Scorpions along with younger brothers Jamie and Jarrod, Bacon was not a major player in the B.C. criminal underworld, said Kirk.

"It's very difficult to say what their rankings were," he said. "To say they were high ranking, I wouldn't go there, but they were certainly high profile."

outlaw motorcycle gang BIKIE member is expected to be charged over two separate shootings earlier this year.

BIKIE member is expected to be charged over two separate shootings earlier this year.

Police raided a house in Wetherill Park, in Sydney's southwest, yesterday.

They found three shotguns, three rifles and a large amount of ammunition along with a small amount of cocaine and steroids.

Police also seized several pieces of Hells Angels clothing.

A 21-year-old man was arrested and taken to Wetherill Park Police Station where he was interviewed before being released.

Police expect charges to be laid after forensic testing is done.

"It will be further alleged the man is a member of the outlaw motorcycle gang," police said in a statement today.

The arrest relates to the June 30 shooting in the western Sydney suburb of Merrylands and the shooting in the eastern suburb of Dover Heights.




Police had been called to a home in Holdsworth Street, Merrylands after residents reportedly heard gun blasts.

They arrived to find the front of the home riddled with bullet holes although a woman, 47, and a boy, 7, escaped injury.

Less than 24 hours later, forensic officers went to a home in Dover Heights after bullet casings were found on the footpath.

Police believe the two houses were shot at on the same night.

Strike Force Bairstowe, comprising detectives from Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, was formed to investigate both shootings.

Police say several men with gang connections were involved in a late-night shooting Monday in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, just a day after a prominent gangster was killed in Kelowna.

RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen said one man suffered minor injuries in the targeted attack around 10: 30 p.m.

A 32-year-old man, who is known to police, was getting into the driver's side of an SUV when someone fired six to eight shots into the vehicle, police said. The man was not hit by bullets, but he suffered lacerations from flying glass or debris.

"At this point, our victim and his associates are unco-operative and, based on their identity and our intelligence on their background, they are known to have gang affiliations," said Thiessen.

The suspect fled in an unknown vehicle and no arrests have been made.

"We have no reason to believe this is any way related to the Kelowna incident that happened two days ago, but we're certainly looking at that, but nothing indicates that's the case here," said Thiessen Tuesday.

Jonathan Bacon, a member of the Red Scorpions gang, was gunned down near a Kelowna casino on Sunday. Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach were also wounded.

targeted shooting near a Surrey nightclub Monday night has left one man with superficial injuries.

The incident took place around 10:40 p.m. steps from Mirage Nightclub in the Gulidford area.

A 32-year-old man, who is known to police, was in his vehicle when someone shot at him. The victim was not hit by bullets, but suffered lacerations from flying glass or debris.

Surrey RCMP spokesman Cpl. Drew Grainger said Tuesday that the serious crime unit is investigating, speaking to witnesses and conducting a video canvas.

On Tuesday morning, the only signs that remained of the shooting were a broken glass door on an empty business space and two pieces of yellow tape tied to door handles.

A resident of the condos above the business told The Province that she had no comment.

Grainger confirmed that the shooting was targeted but said it was too early to speculate if it was gang-related. He would not say if the victim had gang connections.

When asked if there was a connection to the shootout Sunday in Kelowna that targeted gang members and left Jonathan Bacon dead, Grainger replied that gang activity is interconnected.

But, he added, "There is no direct correlation between last night and Kelowna at this time."

Grainger commented that Mirage is a busy club.

"It's very fortunate that there was no overspill."

Bacon was shot dead Sunday afternoon after leaving the Delta Grand Okanagan, a conspicuous hotel and casino complex in downtown Kelowna.

Jonathan Bacon won’t appear in court again, after all. The eldest of three perennially accused, criminally-sanctioned brothers, he was facing trial on more drugs and weapons charges. Then bang, bang, bang. Bullets flew on Sunday. One-third of a notorious fraternal enterprise is gone.

Bacon was shot dead Sunday afternoon after leaving the Delta Grand Okanagan, a conspicuous hotel and casino complex in downtown Kelowna. A masked assailant pointed an automatic rifle at a white Porsche Cayenne and fired, killing Bacon and wounding as many as five other passengers, including two women and at least one known member of the Hell’s Angels, reportedly a close friend of the deceased. The shooter fled in another vehicle. As of Monday afternoon, no arrests had been made.

According to published accounts, Bacon and alleged criminal cohorts had been under police surveillance but not immediately before the brazen attack, which took place about one kilometre from a clubhouse used by a local chapter of Hell’s Angels.


Gangster killed, five injured in shooting outside Kelowna casino
It had to be horrifying, especially to bystanders at the Delta Grand, but violence has followed the Bacons everywhere. Alleged to be the core of a criminal gang called the Red Scorpions, the brothers have suffered attempts on their lives before, and had always survived. Police took the very unusual step of warning the public to steer clear of the Bacons, lest innocents get caught in gang wars and deadly crossfire.

Jonathan, 29, survived a 2006 shooting on the driveway of his family’s former Abbotsford home. James (Jamie) Bacon, 25, the youngest of the three brothers, took a bullet outside the same suburban house the following year, as he climbed out of his brother’s Corvette sports car. “Someone, but more likely two people, opened fire on him with a barrage of 45 calibre bullets,” read a B.C. provincial court judgment, related to that shooting incident. “At least five bullets hit the Corvette, seven went through the attached garage door, and one became embedded in [a Bacon family SUV]. James Bacon was hit by one bullet in the back between his shoulder blades, which would likely have seriously injured or killed him, except for the ballistic vest he was wearing.”

The Bacons aren’t boys to back down. Jamie fired back at his unnamed assailants with a Glock handgun, a prohibited weapon in Canada. Two men then emerged from the Bacon home and stashed the weapon in a “secret compartment” installed inside the family SUV. Police discovered the gun, and three other prohibited semi-automatic weapons, inside the secret compartment, during their investigations the next day.

Not two weeks prior, Jamie Bacon was sentenced to three years in prison, on an earlier drugs-related robbery conviction. Why was he not locked behind bars, but instead free to drive around in a Corvette? Because the court had determined he’d already served an “equivalent sentence” of 14 months for the robbery, in pre-trial custody. So he walked, took a bullet in the back, and fired at his assailants with his Glock.

He was arrested again in 2008, this time with Jarrod, the middle Bacon brother, now 28. The pair was accused of dozens of firearms offences. Jamie was eventually convicted on some of those charges; Jarrod’s charges were stayed. But their legal problems were far from over and their notoriety only grew.

In 2009, Jamie was charged with first-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit murder, for his alleged role in the 2007 massacre of six people in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb. He was delivered to a Surrey remand centre and eventually was placed in solitary confinement. He complained; he found his living conditions deplorable. Bacon took the remand centre to court and won. A B.C. Supreme Court judge found that Bacon’s Charter rights had been breached. “His treatment by the administration and guards is highly arbitrary and further accentuates his powerlessness,” the judge ruled.

Later court documents attest that “Mr. Bacon’s circumstances at Surrey Pre-Trial have improved considerably” since the ruling. His trial on the so-called Surrey Six charges still looms.

Jarrod Bacon, meanwhile, is locked up and awaiting trial on charges related to more drug trafficking allegations. Jarrod avoided prosecution in 2004 on an attempted-murder rap; the charge was stayed after an alleged victim refused to testify.

Although brother Jonathan’s luck ran out Sunday, all three Bacon boys had caught some breaks. They benefitted from able defence lawyers and a legal system that spat them back into society. And they had supportive parents; that makes their trajectories more strange. The brothers didn’t come from poverty or a broken home. As one judge noted recently in a court decision, the Bacons brothers were raised “in a middle class home — both parents had good employment.”

David Bacon was employed by the Abbotsford school district, and was put on paid leave in 2008. Susan Bacon has been manager at a local credit union. They have stood by their sons — and fought for them, in the courts and in the press — through all of the shootings, the accusations, the trials and convictions, and through what they have claimed are campaigns of police and public harassment aimed at themselves, always themselves, the self-appointed victims caught in a cycle of mean-spirited prosecution, to say nothing of guns and drugs and bloodshed.

Now they are forced to cope with the murder of one of their own. Awful for any parent. But no one can say this came as a surprise. Everyone was warned and we all saw it coming: Retaliatory violence. What else could come, except for more?

Winnipeg woman caught in a dramatic police takedown aimed at stopping a suspected gang "hit" has been released from jail despite objections from Manitoba justice officials.

Amanda Kay Freeman, 23, was granted bail Monday under strict conditions that include a curfew and a no-contact order regarding members and associates of the Rock Machine gang. Freeman has no previous criminal involvement and spent the past five nights in custody.
The Crown wanted to keep her behind bars, saying allowing her back into the community while a biker war is still being waged on the streets would send a terrible message to society.
"The public interest would be brought into disrepute," Brent Davidson said.
Provincial court Judge Marvin Garfinkel disagreed after hearing submissions from the Crown and defence lawyer Darren Sawchuk, who claims his client had no idea what was happening during last Tuesday's incident in East Kildonan.
Davidson told court during a separate hearing last Friday how Winnipeg police officers threw themselves into the line of fire to potentially save the life of a Hells Angels associate. He also revealed startling comments, allegedly made by an arrested Rock Machine member, about more violence to come.
Police have been on high alert in recent weeks after more than a dozen incidents between members and associates of the Rock Machine and Hells Angels, including a series of fire-bombings and drive-by shootings of homes and businesses.
Davidson told court those policing efforts led to credible "source" information being received last week about a Hells Angel who was going to be targeted at his residence on Antrim Road. Officers set up surveillance outside the home and on nearby streets, looking for any sign of trouble.
It was just after 12:30 a.m. last Tuesday when a Dodge Avenger began circling the block, Davidson told court. Two male prospect members of the Rock Machine were inside, along with a young woman who owned the vehicle and was sitting in the passenger seat.
Police sprung into action when the Hells Angel who was apparently being targeted stepped out of his home just as the Avenger was pulling up in front. Several police units rushed in, smashing into the Avenger and boxing in the occupants. Police arrested the occupants and seized a loaded .45-calibre handgun from inside the vehicle. Freeman, along with Joseph Jordan Carl Choken, 19, and Guy Wesley Vernon Stevenson, 21, face several charges, including possession of restricted firearms. Choken and Stevenson remain in custody and have not applied for bail.

Police say a triple shooting in a quiet residential neighbourhood does not appear to be linked to an ongoing drug battle between bikers in Manitoba's capital.

A spokeswoman says it's too early to entirely rule out any gang connections — two of the victims were known to police — but she took pains to stress that the shooting was not an eruption of a war between the Hells Angels and Rock Machine.

“The information that we have right now, it is not definitely connected to any dispute between the outlaw motorcycle gangs,” Const. Natalie Aitken said Monday.

“We do have some information that either the victims in this matter, or the address, would have been targeted (but) to go any further with respect to these victims, that's still very much something that we have to speak with them on.”

Police believe there were eight to 10 people in and around the garage of a home in a new subdivision in the Transcona area Sunday night when a lone gunman walked up and fired several shots.

Three men, who are 26, 29 and 30, were hit and taken to hospital in critical condition. They were upgraded to stable on Monday.

Witnesses were co-operating with investigators, Ms. Aitken said, but no arrests had been made.

Police believe two rival gangs are battling over control of the city's drug trade and are trying to intimidate each other by attacking homes or businesses connected to each other's members or affiliates. Police have not named the gangs, but they are believed to be units associated with the Hells Angels and Rock Machine.

The attacks have included the fire-bombing of a tattoo parlour in the Osborne Village district.

In most cases, there have been no injuries, but an exchange of gunfire July 4 left a 14-year-old boy wounded.

Another shooting on Sunday resulted in the death of a man in Kelowna, B.C., when a masked gunman sprayed a Porsche SUV with machine-gun fire in front of an upscale hotel.

Police didn't confirm who was shot, but media reports suggested the victim was Jonathan Bacon, the eldest of three brothers at the centre of a bloody and long-standing gang war.

Don't howl Starkey down. Gangsta culture is a poison spreading among youths of all races

As the aftershocks from last week's violent disorder ripple across Britain, a febrile mood hangs over the nation.

The air is filled with tension and anxiety. Explosive controversies are now flaring up over a host of issues, from zero-tolerance policing to public expenditure cuts.

Now, the historian Dr David Starkey has sparked a conflagration of his own.

During a debate about the disturbances on BBC2's Newsnight, Dr Starkey argued that one of the central problems was the influence of a 'violent, destructive and nihilistic' black culture that had corrupted too many of Britain’s youngsters.

Warming to his theme, he said: ‘A substantial section of the chavs have become black. The whites have become black. Black and white, boy and girl, operate in this language together . . . which is wholly false, which is a Jamaican patois that’s been intruded in England, and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country.’

He then further stoked the flames by adding that Enoch Powell was right in warning, more than 40 years ago, that immigration would ultimately cause conflict across our cities.

Dr Starkey’s outburst not only outraged his fellow panellists in the BBC studio, but also many commentators who watched the show, even though over the weekend he insisted that he ‘was not talking about skin colour but gang culture’.

 

Metro Vancouver hospital was locked down overnight, possibly in response to heightened anxiety about a B.C. gang turf war.

Jonathan Bacon, the eldest of three alleged British Columbia gangster brothers, is reported to have been killed by masked gunmen wielding assault rifles who fired at a luxury car leaving an upscale Kelowna hotel.


The RCMP would only confirm that a man died and five others were injured but News 1130 radio and the Vancouver Province identified the dead man as Mr. Bacon.

A member of the Hells Angels biker gang was also reported to be among the wounded.

The daylight shooting took place after 2:45 p.m. Sunday in front of several shocked onlookers outside the Delta Grand hotel.

RCMP Inspector Bryon Massie says the lockdown at Vancouver General Hospital began at about midnight Sunday.

Mr. Massie says a patient with a known gang affiliation was being treated there and the lockdown - which was lifted after approximately two hours said a spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal Health - was to prevent any friends with gang history from gathering at VGH.

Mr. Massie described the patient as “not a gang player” and he could not say if that person was connected to Sunday's targeted shooting in Kelowna that killed one man and wounded five other people.

As ambulance sirens squealed and a burly, tattooed victim was wheeled onto a gurney, witnesses reported that several gunmen unloaded dozens of shots at a white Porsche SUV while the vehicle tried to speed away.

The gunmen fled eastward in a silvery green SUV, the RCMP said.

“After they took off, I went back to see what had happened,” said a hotel employee, who asked his name not be used for safety reasons. “The car had crashed into the side of the building, (there were) people with bullet holes in them.”

He ran up to the Porsche and asked the driver, a large muscular man with numerous tattoos, if he should call 911. The driver nodded. The man had what appeared to be a bullet hole in his shoulder, and blood gushed out.

A dark-haired woman was sitting in the rear and a blond-haired woman was slumped over in her seat.

Police spokesman Constable Steve Holmes told reporters this kind of incident is rare in Kelowna.

“However, when it does happen it is shocking and traumatic to those affected by it and is of concern to the people living in this community,” he said in a news conference late Sunday.

“The public needs to know that swift and extraordinary measures are being taken in order to ensure that those responsible will be found and brought to account before the courts.”

Constable Holmes wouldn't confirm the identity of the lone man killed or provide any information about the victims' ages, hometowns or relationships were given. Mounties don't believe any bystanders were injured, he said.

“Police believe the general public is not at risk,” said Mr. Holmes, explaining police believe the shooting was targeted.

“It appeared that all the shots fired were directed at one particular vehicle,” he said.

Investigators are now searching for the suspect SUV. No arrests have been made. Police will review video footage from cameras at the hotel and adjoining casino and are asking any witnesses who may have taken photographs or video to come forward.

The authorities have long alleged that the Bacon brothers – Jonathan, James and Jarrod – are ringleaders of the Red Scorpion, a gang which waged a violent turf war against the United Nations gang for control of the marijuana and cocaine trade in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.

James has been accused of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the notorious Surrey Six case, the killings of six men — two of them innocent bystanders —in a Surrey apartment tower in October, 2007.

The Bacon brothers have had brushes with death before.

James, for example, was ambushed in April of 2007 as he drove Jarrod’s Corvette into the driveway of their family home in Surrey. The car was showered with bullets. James fired back with a Glock pistol. He was struck once but stayed alive thanks to the body armour he wore.

Don' murder suspect was close pal of Marlo ASSASSIN: Gardai believe dead gangster's henchman shot Dunne

GARDAI have identified the gunman who shot crime boss The Don -- and it is a close pal of one of his victims.

Officers believe that an associate of gangster Marlo Hyland -- the gang boss murdered on The Don's orders -- was the hitman who assassinated Eamon Dunne.

Suspected of organising 15 murders, gang boss The Don died in a hail of bullets in a Cabra pub in April 2009.

The Herald understands that the leading suspect for the killing is a young man in his early 20s from the Cabra area who was previously very close to slain crime boss Hyland, who was murdered in December 2006.

A source told the Herald: "He was very, very close to 'Marlo' Hyland and looked up to him from a young age. He might always have resented the fact that Dunne took over Marlo's operations after he had him murdered but he didn't let Dunne know that."

The Herald today profiles the young gunman, who is considered the leader of a dangerous crew of young criminals from the Finglas and Cabra areas. This outfit has built up a fearsome reputation for gangland violence since they were teenagers.

FISHING

The suspect was also involved in the murder of innocent Latvian woman Baiba Saulite in November 2006 and is currently facing firearms charges.

Sources say that gardai have placed the young gangster "on top of the list" for pumping eight bullets into 'The Don' -- one of the most notorious criminals in the history of Irish gangland.

The hood 'cut his teeth' in the crime world by taking part in criminal "fishing" which involves attaching a magnet to the end of a fishing rod or long wooden pole, pushing it through letterboxes and using it to remove car keys.

A source explained: "He was brilliant at doing that and built up a solid reputation for stealing cars, laptops and other valuable items but he got caught after a major garda investigation.

"Despite his relatively young age, he has a high pedigree within serious crime circles. He has long been considered a suspect for carrying out the murder of Eamon Dunne."

He has not been arrested over the murder of 'The Don' but some of his closest associates have been.

These include his pal Craig White, who was quizzed despite the fact that he's serving a life sentence for his role in the murder of 'King Ratt' gang member Noel Roche (27) in Clontarf.

 

7 linked to MS-13 accused of Houston murders

Seven alleged members and associates of the MS-13 street gang are charged with three slayings and committing other mayhem as part of a racketeering operation that killed, robbed and dealt drugs in Houston, officials said Thursday.
The gang, also known as the Mara Salvatrucha, has roots in El Salvador and a record in numerous countries.
A newly unsealed federal indictment contends that those charged committed murder in order to move up in the gang, which was hungry to control territory and keep the community in fear.
Defendants are accused of dividing Houston into cliques, smaller groups that operated in regions of the city and held regular meetings to discuss gang rules and criminal activity as well as collect dues.
They also used cellphones, text messages and social networking to conduct business, according to authorities.
Code of silence detailed
Authorities believe two of the MS-13's victims this year — identified as Saul Garduno, 15, and Jonathan Hernandez, 24 — were gang rivals.
It is not yet known why a third victim, 17-year-old Anayanci Roche, was killed.
The indictment describes the inner workings of the gang, saying there is no tolerance for members or associates suspected of cooperating with police.
"The sanction for violating the code of silence is termed a green light … the gang's approval for the killing of someone suspect of cooperating with law enforcement," notes the indictment.
Those charged were identified as Hector Ovidio Molina Fuentes, 33; Jose Gabriel Garcia Calderon, 19; Ernesto Manuel Mejia, 18; Samuel DeJesus Argueta, 21; Ronald Alexander Gomez, 19; Jaime Eduardo Lopez Torres, 29; and Carlos Contreras, 21.
Two arrested elsewhere
It is not clear which of the defendants, if any, grew up in Houston. Contreras is in custody in Panama and facing extradition to the United States. Another defendant was arrested in Arkansas.
Stephen Morris, head of the FBI's Houston division, said the probe of the MS-13 continues.
"Our investigation into this violent gang is not over," Morris said. "We will continue to pursue MS-13 and any other gang members who seek to poison our streets with drugs and violence."
He encouraged the public to come forward with information on their dealings.
Jose Angel Moreno, the top federal prosecutor for a region that stretches from Houston to the Mexican border, stressed that the gang's activities cast a wide net.
The MS-13 first reached into the United States in the 1980s, according to a statement released by federal authorities who announced the indictment.

 

A gang member who killed two bystanders and wounded a 7-year-old boy when he opened fire on rivals in 2003 to avenge the slaying of a close friend was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

James Lionel Carter, 37, was convicted in June of two counts of murder, three counts of premeditated attempted murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder for the shooting outside Dr. J's liquor store in southeast San Diego on New Year's Day 2003. In sentencing Carter to multiple life terms, Judge Kenneth So said, "This is the ultimate example of destructive gang violence."
Carol Waites, 45, and 32-year-old Sharen Burton were killed in the shooting and Waites' 7-year-old nephew was wounded. The boy -- who was shot six times -- covered his 2-year-old niece's body in the backseat of their car when gunfire broke out. She was not injured.

"When I go to my old community to visit, it's like it happened yesterday," said Antrone Waites, son of Carol Waites. "I hate people coming to my face saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Sorry is not going to bring her back. This time I have to suffer for the rest of my life,"
The victims had stopped at Dr. J's on Logan Avenue on their way home from church about 1 a.m. when the shots rang out.
According to the prosecution, two carloads of gang members pulled up to the store and an "incredible number" of shots were fired. Carter's gang was "inflamed" by the murder of his close friend, Thomas Brown, 24 hours earlier, said Deputy District Attorney Robert Hickey.
The prosecutor said Carter and his fellow gangsters shot at their rivals, who hid behind the victims' car.
An AK-47 used by Carter put many of the 30 bullet holes in the victims' sedan, Hickey said.
Hickey said the murders have torn the victims' families apart, with most moving away from San Diego.
"They've been haunted by this case for 8 1/2 years," the prosecutor said.
Hickey said the case was solved when members of Carter's own gang came forward to tell authorities what happened.
Three or four more shooters are being sought, the prosecutor said.
"They crossed the line when they ended up killing innocent ladies," Hickey said outside court. "Because of that, we were able to get people from within his (Carter's) gang to come forward and tell us what they knew about the crime. Without them, we never could have solved this case."
Carter was indicted in June 2009.
Antrone Waites said he forgives Carter for killing his mother.
"I've been waiting eight years for this," the son said. "I don't have no anger. I'm ready to put this to rest so I can rest."
Carter's aunt, Michelle Carter, said her nephew was an innocent man and was framed by the court system.
"James is innocent, he's not the beast that the system is trying to make him to be," said Carter.
"Our nephew is not a beast," she told Antrone Waites. "He's not the killer of your mother."
In his closing argument of trial, defense attorney Brad Patton said that circumstantial and "snitch" evidence wasn't enough to convict his client.
Rap lyrics found in Carter's jail cell last year, which prosecutors claim are confessions to the murders, were nothing more than words written by a man interested in going into the rap business, Patton said. He said the prosecution's theory of the shootings was not consistent with the incident's timeline.

fears of weekend return to rioting

Police in England have been deployed in full force amid fears of a return of the rioting that blighted London and other major cities earlier this week. Arrests continue as courts work overtime to process defendants.
 
Police in London flooded city streets Friday evening in an effort to prevent a weekend repeat of England's worst riots in decades.

Some 16,000 officers - instead of the usual 2,500 - were to remain on duty, despite a period of relative calm.

"We will be sustaining the numbers for a period of time," said British Home Secretary Theresa May. "We have had some quieter nights but we are not complacent about that. The police will maintain their tough arrest policy, their presence on the streets."

In other cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham, high levels of policing were also being maintained amid fears that weekend drinking could reignite violence outside the capital.

The week's unrest claimed its fifth life late Thursday with the death of 68-year-old Richard Mannington Bowes. A 22-year-old man was arrested Friday in connection with the death, due to injuries. The victim was beaten after trying to tackle a fire started by rioters.

 

Mark Duggan's uncle was crime lord: Man whose death sparked riots is linked to notorious gangland chiefs

The suspected gangster shot dead by police was the nephew of a notorious gangland criminal, it has been revealed.

Mark Duggan's uncle was Desmond 'Dessie' Noonan whose family used to run Manchester's underworld and featured in a 2005 documentary.

Dessie Noonan, a former bouncer, ran a gang with his brothers Domenyk, Damian and Derek. He and Domenyk both featured in Donal MacIntyre's TV programme six years ago.

In it, he boasted how his family was 'untouchable', saying: 'I've got a bigger army than the police. We have more guns than the police.'

Notorious gangster Desmond Noonan (left) was the uncle of Mark Duggan, who was shot by police

Dessie's second wife Julie is the sister of Mr Duggan's mother Pamela, according to The Sun. Mr Duggan used to visit their home regularly to babysit, according to the paper. 

The couple divorced in 1993 after Dessie was acquitted of the murder of fellow gangster Anthony Johnson but Mr Duggan reportedly still visited him and his brother Domenyk.

 

 

A source told The Sun: 'They took Mark under their wing. They liked him not just as a nephew but as a mate. When he came to Manchester he'd see thema nd if they went to London they'd have a night with him.'

Dessie was jailed for 33 months in 1995 for a violent attack on twin brothers and described as a 'psycho' in court. Ten years later, he was stabbed to death by a drug dealer, Derek McDuffus. 

His brother Domenyk, 47, was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder earlier this week after rioting broke out in Manchester City Centre. 

A man believed to be Domenyk Noonan lies face down on the ground in Manchester during the riots

Domenyk, from Stockport, who has changed his surname to Lattlay-Fottfoy, has now been remanded after appearing in court charged with handling stolen alcohol and cigarettes. 

Mr Duggan's death in Tottenham last week sparked the riots that spread across London and to other English cities.

He had been under surveillance and was in a minicab when he was stopped by armed police and died from an single bullet wound to the chest. 

Another bullet went through his right arm. The Independent Police Complaints Commission have said there is 'no evidence' a handgun found at the scene had been used.

Armed police are allowed to shoot if they believe they are in mortal danger and do not actually have to have been fired upon.

What happened when the car was stopped is now at the centre of an independent inquiry by the IPCC which could take up to six months.

 

 

Children as young as ten looted stores and made off with bottles of wine and Vodka yesterday as fresh violence flared around the UK

Children as young as ten looted stores and made off with bottles of wine and Vodka yesterday as fresh violence flared around the UK when parts of the West Midlands and Manchester were hit by copy-cat riots.

The children wore tracksuits and innocently disregarded covering their faces as they scampered through the shattered glass of supermarkets to fill their pockets with looted goods. 

The disturbances came as 16,000 police officers were deployed on London's streets in a bid to head off a fourth night of the violence which spiralled out of control across dozens of suburbs on Saturday night.

Disorder and looting rocked parts of Manchester particularly, but there was also trouble in Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Nottingham, Leicester and Liverpool - although police appeared to containing the unrest. 

But in what was by far the most serious incident of the night three men, two of them brothers aged 25 and 21, died in Birmingham after they were hit by a car.

West Midlands Police is also currently investigating reports that shots were fired at a police officer just outside Birmingham city centre, thought to be in the Aston area, according to Sky.

None of the violence has escalated in the same way as it did in London the previous night. The capital remained relatively calm last night.

Too young to drink: A youngster barely over 10 years old clutches a bottle of wine looted from a Sainsbury's Local store in Manchester city centre, and right, one of his friends runs away from the same shop with three bottles of strong Vodka 

Primary school age: Two youngsters pull the hoods from their baggy sweaters over their heads as they stand outside the looted store. The child who stole a bottle of wine is seen behind them returning with a bottle of coke

Free for all: Hooded youths spill out of the damaged store in Manchester after filling their pockets with cigarettes and bottles of alcohol

So far, 109 people have been arrested in the West Midlands, 110 in Manchester and Salford, and 44 in and around Liverpool. In Bristol there were 19 arrests for offences, including having a balaclava in your possession.

There was also a large blaze at a derelict art college in Gloucester, with several smaller fires, while police also dealt with small groups who attacked them.

In Birmingham mobs rampaged through the city centre but unlike Saturday night, when shops were looted, the gangs mainly wreaked destruction, setting fire to cars and attempting to provoke police.

Rioters continually regrouped and dispersed, forcing police to chase them. Crowds of around 500 assembled in the city centre and the atmosphere quickly turned menacing.

During the disturbances the three men - the brothers and a friend - were involved in a hit-and-run incident in the Winson Green area as they were protecting their car wash business after the previous night's violence. They were taken to hospital but all subsequently died.

Reinforcements: Police file down the escalator and stand guard at the Mailbox shopping and hotel complex in Birmingham City Centre on yesterday

Manchester: Riot police in full body armour in Market Street last night as looters set fashion retailer Miss Selfridge on fire

 

Mob-rule: A vehicle burns as yobs move away on the streets of Birmingham

On guard: Riot police stand with shields in front of a street fire in the Toxteth area of Liverpool last night which was hit by riots

Under control: Heavily protected and looking menacing, police 'Jenkel' riot wagons patrol Hackney centre to prevent further disturbances last night

Manchester: Miss Selfridge was set alight in Market Street causing thousands of pounds of damage

A young man shot in his car during last night's "unprecedented" rioting died today.

A murder hunt was launched as police announced that the 26-year-old victim had died after being admitted to hospital.

He was discovered in a car suffering from gunshot wounds at about 9.15pm as trouble flared in Croydon, south London, last night.

Croydon Council leader Mike Fisher said the cost of last night's rioting in the area would run into millions of pounds.

A total of 28 families were made homeless and placed in temporary accommodation but most would be able to return shortly.

Mr Fisher said: "I believe that this was inflicted by a very small minority of people, many of whom did not come from within Croydon.

"This is a mindless minority of thugs who think it is acceptable to cause damage, to steal goods and property just because they want to.

"What we have seen on an unprecedented and unparalled level is looting and arson of those buildings, some of which have been burnt to the ground.

"What we should remember is that this was not just shops but people were living above them.

"These people have no regard at all for human life or the danger that they were putting those families in."

A large uniformed police presence was seen in Croydon to reassure the public and CCTV images were being sifted to identify culprits.

Mr Fisher said he hoped the courts would punish them by "locking them up and throwing away the key".

He added that the Metropolitan Police were "horribly stretched" but said they were "absolutely brilliant" in their response to the disorder.

Reinforcements from police were asked for and received but arrived too late to save some properties from being attacked.

Mr Fisher denied suggestions that there was a policy to sacrifice one part of Croydon to protect other more affluent areas.

He said: "There is no doubt that this has damaged the image of Croydon but we have bounced back from the Second World War.

"I'm confident Croydon will be rebuilt and that the community will work very well together."

It took years to build Croydon's businesses but only hours to destroy some of them, Mr Fisher said.

Council chief executive Jon Rouse warned against anyone thinking of joining any further riots.

He said: "You are attacking your community and, secondly, you are likely to get caught because we have got so many CCTV images that will be followed up that will result in you having a criminal record.