Pubdate: Tue, 12 Apr 2005
Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Vancouver Courier
Contact:  http://www.vancourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474
Author: Mike Howell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

HOMICIDE HOTEL IN FOR EXTREME MAKEOVER

The owner of a Downtown Eastside hotel that has been the scene of three 
homicides in less than three months plans to evict his tenants and spend 
$500,000 in renovations.

Sam Kim of the New Wing's Hotel at 143 Dunlevy St. admitted Wednesday he 
must clean up his hotel and run a better operation to avoid further 
violence inside the building.

"I'm feeling very sad about what happened," Kim told the Courier.

Kim is expected to submit architectural drawings of the proposed 
renovations to city hall within the next week. The drawings are part of his 
application for a building permit.

Once he obtains a permit, he will then need to give his 50 tenants two 
months' notice to move out. Renovations could begin at the end of June and 
last three to six months, he said.

Each of the rooms will be overhauled, and his second-floor office will be 
replaced by an office on the ground level. The existing office is at the 
top of a long staircase separated by an iron gate.

Kim was not in the office Monday night, around 9:30 p.m., when two men died 
after a shooting inside the hotel. Abraham Habib Trumaine, 23, of no fixed 
address died at the scene, and the second victim, who hasn't been 
identified, died in hospital.

Police said the homicides are related to the drug trade. The homicides come 
less than three months after the Jan. 28 shooting death of a man in the hotel.

Police haven't released the victim's name in the first homicide, but 
arrested Berris Ambrose Smith, 26, of no fixed address. Smith has been 
charged with first degree murder, also linked to drugs.

After speaking to a tenant on the phone Tuesday night, Kim said he believes 
he knew the two victims in the latest homicides. Kim, in fact, barred one 
of the victims from the hotel a few days prior to the shootings, he said.

"He was a guest, and had a bat or something that he used in a fight. I told 
him that he couldn't come in the building. Then he picked up his stuff, and 
he was gone."

If it's the same man, he slipped back into the hotel Monday night. When Kim 
isn't in his office, he employs some of his tenants to watch the front 
door, which can be seen from the office on a surveillance camera.

As of Friday morning, the hotel was still locked down as police continued 
their investigation. The city has relocated tenants to hotels in the 
Downtown Eastside.

Homicide investigators aren't releasing further details on the shootings, 
and it's unclear whether there was an exchange of gunfire between the two 
victims-or whether they were both murdered by a gunman.

The New Wing's has a long history with police, the fire department and the 
city's licensing department. Over the years, police have arrested drug 
dealers and answered numerous emergency calls for assaults and overdoses.

In October 2003, the city's business licence panel ordered Kim to take 
building management and maintenance courses, install a buzzer for the front 
door and keep a tenant and guest registry.

Even with those upgrades, Kim said he is still struggling because of the 
hotel's location in the middle of an area overrun by the drug trade. 
Addicts and dealers are frequently in his hotel.

"They are sick people and need their drugs. They bring the dope dealers in, 
and the dealers are fighting for turf."

Barb Windsor, city deputy chief licensing inspector, said she hadn't 
received a detailed report from police on the homicides. Once she does, she 
could have Kim appear before a business licence panel again.

"I've been talking to him and he's trying to bring in a temporary manager 
to assist him right now. So we're working with him on that. Whether [the 
homicides] were his fault because of lack of management, or a fight between 
tenants, I don't know."

Kim, a soft-spoken man who immigrated to Vancouver in 1967 from Seoul, 
Korea, has owned the hotel for 17 years. During a tour of the hotel in 
February, Kim told the Courier it was difficult to keep track of the people 
in his hotel.

"It's almost impossible to control," he said, noting tenants are allowed to 
have guests. "I'm not a police officer. The best thing to do would be to 
legalize all these drugs. Then you won't need the dealers."
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman