Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jan 2018
Source: Mission City Record (CN BC)
Copyright: 2018 The Mission City Record
Contact:  http://www.missioncityrecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1305
Author: Vikki Hopes
Page: A5

ABBOTSFORD-MISSION REGION RECORDS 10 MURDERS IN 2017

Abbotsford-Mission was declared the "murder capital of Canada" for its
homicide rates in 2008 and 2009 - at the height of a drug war between
the Red Scorpions and UN gangs.

Now a different gang conflict is putting the area back in the running
for the title.

The Abbotsford-Mission census metropolitan (CMA) area tallied 10
murders in 2017, one in Mission and nine in Abbotsford.

The local CMA is one of 33 included in Statistics Canada homicide
rates formally released every July for the previous year.

The stats are based on the number of murders per 100,000 population.
The Abbotsford-Mission CMA's rate for 2017 is 5.53 (based on a
population of 180,518 in the 2016 census).

The only other CMA across the country that could top the local CMA,
according to preliminary figures, is Thunder Bay, Ont., with a rate of
5.8.

This compares to a national average in 2016 of 1.68.

The Abbotsford-Mission CMA was at the top of the list for its 2008
rate, when it had 10 homicides (four in Mission), and again in 2009,
when there were nine (all in Abbotsford).

Many of those were gang-related killings related to the battle for
drug turf between the Red Scorpions - then headed by the notorious
Bacon brothers of Abbotsford - and the UN Gang.

Police at the time said initiatives focused on preventing gang
violence, combined with the arrests or deaths of several key
gangsters, resulted in a drop in those homicide numbers in the ensuing
years.

Between 2010 and 2015, there were no more than four murders in any
given year. In 2011, there were none.

But a new gang war began to emerge in late 2014, when 18-year-old
Harwin Baringh was shot and killed while in his vehicle on Sparrow
Drive in west Abbotsford.

The following year, the Abbotsford Police Department began talking
about a conflict between two opposing groups, primarily made up of
young South Asian men.

Police dubbed it the "Townline Hill conflict" - after the area of west
Abbotsford where the majority of the violence and drive-by shootings
were occurring.

As the conflict progressed, police indicated another gang war was
underway, and more targeted killings began occurring.

Last year, the Abbotsford Police Department (APD) said the local
issues were part of a bigger regional problem, which they now identify
as the "Lower Mainland gang conflict."

That conflict reached a peak last year in Abbotsford, with seven of
the murders being attributed to gangs or drugs.

Sgt. Casey Vinet said the escalation in gang activity and homicides is
"very concerning" to the APD, given the threat it poses to public safety.

"We are in a very bad period right now," he said.

He said gang violence tends to come in waves and, although police have
a "good handle of what's going on in the region," preventing violence
and holding the players accountable is challenging.

Vinet said one of the barriers is a lack of co-operation from
witnesses and victims.

He said the APD is undertaking, or continuing, several initiatives
aimed at prevention, intervention and suppression.

These steps include gang-and-drug talks to every Grade 8 student in
the district, after-school programming and support for at-risk kids.

As well, the APD will soon be forming a gang crime unit, with a focus
on intervening and suppressing gang activity on a local level, Vinet
said.

He said the APD will also continue to work with the Combined Forces
Special Enforcement Unit and other agencies on investigations and 
prevention.

Vinet said it's hoped that a combination of tactics brings a reversal
to the homicide numbers, as they did following the spike in 2008 and
'09.

"No one approach by itself will solve this issue," he
said.

TEN MURDER VICTIMS

MISSION:

- - Aug. 16: Body of Chelsey Gauthier, 22, of Abbotsford found in
isolated area near Sylvester Road and Dale Road. She had been reported
missing on July 30.

ABBOTSFORD:

- - Feb. 20: Satkar Sidhu, 23, shot on Steelhead Court.

- - March 3: Body of Joseph Kellington, 24, found on Ross Road after he
had been missing since Jan. 29.

- - March 24: Jaskarn Lally, 20, shot at home in 3500 block of Chase
Street.

- - May 31: Nektar Pardalis, 41, found in garage of home on Cameron
Crescent.

- - July 4: Clarence Crothers, 62, found dead in his apartment on Braun
Avenue. Jeffrey Charles Halicki, 50, has been charged with
second-degree murder.

- - Aug. 4 - Jaspreet Sidhu, 18, shot on Oriole Crescent and crashed
into house on George Ferguson Way.

- - Aug. 31 - Sehajdeep Sidhu, 18, shot on Gladwin Road south of
Huntingdon Road.

- - Nov. 6 - Const. John Davidson, 53, shot while responding to a
shots-fired call at a strip mall on Mt. Lehman Rd. Oscar Arfmann has
been charged with first-degree murder.

- - Dec. 28 - Alexander Blanarou, 24, found shot in field on Bates Road
near Harris Road.
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MAP posted-by: Matt