Creative Writing Didn't Reform Convict Shot Dead On Seymour St
Greg Carr
Gangster killed
Ricardo Scarpino, released from jail one week ago, was shot dead in
downtown Vancouver in front of his fiance
Kim Bolan
The Vancouver Sun
(Comments In Brackets My Own.)
Sunday, January 20, 2008
CREDIT: Global News
Ricardo Scarpino
VANCOUVER - A week after he was released from prison, gangster Ricardo
Francis Scarpino was shot to death Saturday night as he arrived at his
own engagement party at an upscale Vancouver restaurant.
Scarpino was parking his 2007 Land Rover outside Gotham Steakhouse at
Seymour and Dunsmuir when gunmen raced across the street and filled
the black SUV with bullets. A close friend of Scarpino's, who was
sitting behind the convicted drug trafficker, was also killed.
The 37-year-old's fiance watched in horror from the front passenger's
seat as her future husband died. Neither she nor a fourth person in
the vehicle were injured.
Vancouver Police Const. Tim Fanning said police are hunting for two
suspects who escaped on foot immediately after the targeted hit at
10:11 p.m.
Descriptions of the suspects were not available Sunday, Fanning said,
simply because of the large number of witness statements still being
taken.
"They lay in waiting and I guess they figured that was their best
opportunity to do this, but we're very thankful that no one else was
hurt or killed by this very brazen act," Fanning said.
The Vancouver Sun has learned that Scarpino had only gotten out of
jail on Jan. 12 after a series of run-ins with the law going back 14
years on both sides of the border. His brother Mario said Sunday that
the whole family is distraught at the news, especially given that
Scarpino was about to get married and start his life fresh.
"Supposedly they were going away next week to get married," he said.
"I know that he was planning on getting into some sort of real
estate."
Mario said no family members were at the restaurant for the engagement
party and only learned about the shooting later in the evening.
"I was invited, but I wasn't [there] ... My mother phoned me," he
said. "And then I watched it on the news."
(His brother gets out of the pen and he doesn't go to a engagement
dinner at a well-known steakhouse.? Was he warned in some way to stay
away? What kind of brother wouldn't go to a dinner at a nice
restaurant with his new sister-in-law?)
He said he can't figure out why the gangland hit would come so quickly
after his brother's release from jail, where he had spent much of the
last eight years.
(Why should they wait? Going to the Gotham Steak House where I have
seen HA ppl eat is a way of letting the gangsters of the city know you
are still into it following your release from prison. Go to the Salmon
House on the North Shore or Hy's are Black Angus if you are trying to
stay out of the criminal underworld and make a fresh start.)
"I wonder and am asking myself how this could have happened. I mean
the police can't give him personal protection," Mario said. "You know
what, it could be an old score, I don't know. It could be a new
score."
(Did he ask for protection? That isn't allowed if your a gangster. No
wonder they killed him in such a brazen fashion.)
Fanning said it is miraculous more people weren't hurt given the time
of night and the popularity of the area.
"It was amazing that stray bullets didn't hit the other two passengers
in the car or people on the street," he said.
(Or it could be the shooters firing on the run were some of the best
in the business.)
The uninjured man in the vehicle was also known to police, while the
second victim, who like Scarpino lived in West Vancouver, was not on
the police radar.
Scarpino was convicted in 1999 in Victoria of being the ringleader in
a cocaine importation scheme. He was previously involved in a shooting
death in 1993 when he was working as a bounty hunter in California,
but convinced a court it was a matter of self-defence and was
sentenced to 27 months for firearms violations.
According to police and gang sources, Scarpino has also worked with a
variety of criminal groups, including prominent gangsters linked to
Ranjit Singh Cheema, who was recently extradited to the U.S. to face
trafficking charges.
Scarpino told Lower Mainland associates that he had New York Mafia
connections.
Investigators say it is too soon to confirm a motive in the double
murder, Vancouver's first two of 2008. But they said the shooting is
likely related to a series of slayings across Metro Vancouver last
fall, all involving different groups fighting for turf in the drug
trade, including the Independent Soldiers, the United Nations and the
Hells Angels.
"He's tied to a lot of other criminals and involved in activity and
that's why we believe it's a targeted attack, and he was obviously on
somebody's list to kill," Fanning said.
Investigators worked through Saturday night on the dramatic shooting,
virtually closing several blocks downtown as they searched for
evidence. Two guns were recovered from Richards and Dunsmuir, Fanning
said.
A Sun reporter saw investigators locating some evidence at about 12:30
a.m. at that location, the grounds of the Holy Rosary Cathedral. For
several hours after the shooting, the two bodies lay in the street
amongst shattered window glass, behind yellow police tape.
Dozens of officers, including members of the B.C. Gang Task Force
carrying automatic rifles, secured the area as curious passersby
stopped to see what was happening. Several thought a movie shoot was
going on and were shocked to learn of the double-homicide.
Others said the scene was becoming commonplace in Vancouver, where a
special task force was put together several months ago to disrupt gang
activity downtown.
When police arrived minutes after the shooting, they found two guests
of the engaged couple trying to make a quick exit, Fanning said. One
of them - a 47-year-old man - was armed with a handgun and carrying
cocaine. He was arrested and led away.
Fanning said dozens of investigators are working on the case, but it
will be a difficult one to solve.
"It is very tough when you are talking about people who are involved
in organized crime to catch the killers because there is obviously a
reluctance to talk and to share information with the police."
He said Scarpino's fiance was crushed, but cooperative with police.
"What an absolutely horrific thing to have happen on a night that was
supposed to be joyous, friends and family gathering together for an
engagement party looking forward to the rest of your life. To be
sitting in the same car with your future husband, to see him violently
gunned down, you can only imagine what she is going through," Fanning
said.
The two had known each other for a couple of years, meeting while
Scarpino was incarcerated.
Author Ed Griffin taught Scarpino creative writing in Matsqui
Institution several years ago. He was devastated when he learned of
the murder.
"This is really tragic. This is a life gone down the tubes," said
Griffin on Sunday. "I am sad that he is dead."
He said Scarpino was extremely intelligent and dynamic - a real leader
who could have gone far in life.
"In that class, there were lots of ideas flowing around. He was a very
creative guy and quite a leader," Griffin said. "It is really sad to
me that the prison system failed him."
(How did the system fail him? He didn't get raped and he didn't get
his face caved in. He left lookin' healthy. That is all you can expect
from the penal system. If someone intelligent chooses to be evil and
break the laws of Canada and get back into the gang life during a gang
war that is his fault. He had a nice place to live and a luxury car.
He could have gotten an honest job as a construction worker or a
warehouseman but he continued with crime and he died and left a mess
for the taxpayers of the city to clean up.)
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=3e818693-6409-4628-b76f-3b8165a0ebf2&k=86728
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Slain man described as 'loving person'
Family upset by media reports of gangland-style hit
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=add66559-a8f1-45c4-8558-8f6a39ad1ea5&p=2
Kim Bolan, with a file from Kelly Sinoski
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, January 24, 2008
METRO VANCOUVER - When Amanda Schwab's baby son had cancer six years
ago, her uncle -- Ricardo Francis Scarpino -- sent his prayers and
love from prison.
"My son was three months old and he was stricken with cancer. My uncle
still sent a nun to come and pay his regards to his nephew Austin and
she ended up having 700 nuns praying for my son. And it worked,"
Schwab said Wednesday. "Even when he was in jail, he was here with
us."
(Great that the boy was cured. The Catholic Church will say prayers
for money. An American priest costs twice as much as a Filipino one.
So sell some cocaine and the servants of the Pope will be happy to say
prayers for those you want.)
She said the clan is upset by the negative media coverage of
Scarpino's gangland execution in front of an upscale Vancouver
restaurant Saturday, with his close friend Gilles Andre LePage.
(You expect positive coverage of a person who did no charity work and
cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and was killed while
with a man with a loaded gun? Why didn't the man with the gun fire at
the attackers. The dead man hung out with the wrong sort of criminal
friends. I wonder who told the assassins where the dinner party was
being held and how they knew when they were coming out of the
restaurant. Maybe a call from someone inside the Gotham Steak House.)
"I cannot express how much of a loss it is to our family now," said
Schwab, 25. "He has been such a wonderful loving person."
Police have described the 37-year-old as immersed in organized crime
and freelancing his services to almost every major gang in B.C. He
served time in prison for gun possession, robbery, unlawful
confinement and drug importation, though the final charge was stayed
after he won an appeal of his original conviction.
But even law enforcement officers who knew Scarpino admit his charisma
allowed him to talk his way out of almost any situation and to
maintain international organized crime connections up to and including
the Mafia.
"He never really brought it home," Schwab said of her uncle's criminal
ties. "You have to remember that he was the victim here."
Asked what legitimate jobs Scarpino had held, the only one Schwab
could remember was modelling. "That's all that I know about," she
said.
(37 yrs old and only one job in his life that didn't last long. This
was a career criminal and a drain on societal resources. He was a
victimizer and he ended up shot dead because of it. Vancouver got a
lot tougher and violent while he was in prison and he probably didn't
realize it.)
She said Scarpino, who was on his way to his own engagement party at
Gotham Restaurant, was the happiest she had ever seen him. His shocked
fiance is still reeling from watching him being gunned down as she sat
beside him in his SUV.
The family is planning a funeral, Schwab said, though the details have
not been finalized. In the meantime, as police try to identify two
suspects who fled on foot, the family has been poring over old photos
of good times, Schwab said.
"I just remember him being there every Christmas and all the special
times. He was always devoted to his family," she said, recalling that
he would always tell her to maintain strong connections to relatives.
(Every present these ppl ever got was from a crime and they knew it.)
"It is terrible and we are the ones that have to pick up the pieces
somehow," Schwab said.
LePage, 38, was sitting behind Scarpino when he was also hit by the
assassins. Vancouver police said Wednesday that he has no criminal
record, and is known to them only as a Scarpino associate. The two men
shared a rented British Properties mansion.
Earlier this week, Scarpino's oldest brother Mario told The Vancouver
Sun that "Gilles" was a good family friend who worked in the same
Delta building in which the family's business is located.
The double homicide in Vancouver and another gangland-style murder in
Surrey on Tuesday have police experts worried about the potential for
retaliatory violence.
There were several high-profile gang killings last fall, all of which
remain unsolved and involve gangs like the Hells Angels, the United
Nations and the Independent Soldiers.
Gang specialists from across Western Canada will gather in Vancouver
in April for a conference on "gang suppression."
"This conference is a must-have for investigators and police managers
faced with targeting gang crime and related violence," says a brochure
for the event, sponsored by the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force, the
Vancouver police gang unit and the criminal intelligence service.
The latest victim of gun violence, 23-year-old Michael Alan Sing, is
no stranger to police.
Shot to death in Surrey on Tuesday, (He was found shot in a beat up
Jeep Cherokee at 104Ave and 152 Ave in broad daylight.) He was before
the courts on charges of trespassing at night and mischief in
Coquitlam last March. He was scheduled to appear in court on that
matter on April 18, according to Provincial Court records. And he was
supposed to appear in court next October, for alleged possession of a
weapon for dangerous purposes. Sing was earlier convicted of
possessing a weapon and assault with a weapon and got a one-year
suspended sentence.
(Assault with a weapon and he got a suspended sentence? Sounds like he
might have been willing to give it up to the police about something.)
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
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And there were several high-profile gang slayings in Surrey last fall
that remain unsolved, including that of six people in the penthouse of
a Whalley highrise on Oct. 19.
Four of the six were linked to the Independent Soldiers, while two
other victims were innocent bystanders shot in the head, apparently to
prevent them from being witnesses.
(Odd coincidence. One of the innocent victims was Ed Schellenberg who
supposedly has no connection to Walter Schellenberg who died during a
HA run.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=20f9b6b7-64b6-4bdf-aeda-e2b5f389cdcf
Both had Hell in their last name and one was murdered in a death that
seems to have Hell's Angels involvement and the other died on a Hell's
Angel run. Hell's Angels tend to be superstitious so I wonder what
they will make of this.)
The mass killing, the largest gang slaying in B.C. history, is
believed to be in retaliation for the murder nine days earlier of drug
dealer Dylan Becker, who subcontracted his meth-cooking skills to a
biker gang.
(Reality check:Why not just say he worked for HAMC. Know of any other
clubs of the 1% type doing anything locally? Mess with the best and
die like the rest is one of their slogans and the person that was
killed must have been a good earner. Has the Vancouver Sun recently
been intimidated into not mentioning HAMC so much?
http://groups.google.fm/group/alt.true-crime/msg/f1329943c8200db7 has
the RCMP stating the I.S. are a HA puppet gang as does this
http://www.canada.com/cityguides/winnipeg/story.html?id=815d8c3f-a350-4eb1-88e0-c0de782a6e11&k=12565.
If this is true it could be a gang war combined with an internal HAMC
war. I've met some of the soldiers and sure they look like they can
hold their own and cause some mayhem but they look like guys who would
only reach the bottom or a step above the official rankings of the
club. Could be the I.S. has ppl in it who aren't interested in being
puppets and are hoping to replace HAMC.)
Becker was shot in the parking lot of a Scott Road McDonald's, only to
die as his friend raced him to Surrey Memorial Hospital.
(I heard a lot of talk about that murder at the time.)
Vancouver also had a spike in gang murders in late 2007, leading
police forces across the Lower Mainland to form a special team to
suppress gang violence by tackling it in the areas where the gangsters
socialize.
Vancouver police media liaison officer, Const. Tim Fanning, said the
strategy has been successful in reducing violence and will continue.
"We are going to go where the gangsters are whether it is gyms,
restaurants, clubs, whether they pop up their head, wherever there is
the potential for violence or problems, we want to work with those
establishments to minimize the risk to anybody or eliminate that
risk," Fanning said Tuesday.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=f0bcd28d-61eb-4609-a809-4d554eb6baaa&k=25016
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http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=f0bcd28d-61eb-4609-a809-4d554eb6baaa&k=25016
Surrey cab driver in critical condition after stabbing
Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A Surrey cab driver is in hospital in critical condition after being
stabbed multiple times early Saturday morning.
Surrey RCMP said at 1:50 a.m. Saturday, they received a call that a
taxi driver had been stabbed in the area of 11026 136 St.
In a written release, police said they do not believe robbery was a
motive in the attack.
The investigation is ongoing
To keep it balanced there is some good news on the crime front.
Surrey seeing a dramatic drop in the number of stolen vehicles
Jan, 24 2008 - 9:50 AM
SURREY/CKNW(AM980) - What was once considered the auto theft capital
of BC is now seeing a dramatic drop in the number of stolen vehicles.
Surrey RCMP says early figures for 2007 suggest a decline of about 50
per cent in vehicle theft since 2003.
That equals about four thousand fewer vehicles stolen last year.
Police credit a program to target prolific offenders, adding a mapping
analyst to identify hotspots for theft and a greater participation of
the public and businesses in helping to prevent and deter crime
Excellent these strategies should have been put in place 15 yrs ago.
Good work Surrey GRC. If anyone has seen my old "89 White with red
trim Plymouth Reliant then let me know. It was last seen at Low's
Tires On King George Hwy. This business has since closed. A tow truck
driver who sounded black named Jerry told me by phone he had it once
but then denied it. It has a red interior. JVD-
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For ppl who still think the jails are country clubs:
Prisoner killed
Coquitlam Now
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
COQUITLAM - One prisoner died and another will likely be charged
following an attack Saturday night in a Lower Mainland jail.
All prisoners had been locked down in their cells at 10 p.m. as part
of the evening routine at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre, according
to police.
Half an hour later, prisoners overheard a fight in a cell and alerted
guards.
B.C. Corrections staff found that one of two men in the cell had been
"severely assaulted," and sent him to hospital for treatment.
John David Parker, 57, of Vancouver, died hours later in Royal
Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.
While no charges have been laid, a spokesman for the integrated
homicide investigation team said police suspect a 22-year-old man from
the Lower Mainland was involved in the killing.
IHIT's Cpl. Dale Carr said investigators plan to interview all 60
inmates housed in the jail wing where the attack occurred.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
What kind of jail are they running there? Overcrowding is leading to
these dangerous conditions since prisoners should be single bunked. It
appears the person who lost didn't hit the panic button that is in
every cell but the other prisoners alerted the authorities. In the
places i've been confined in that was a no-no. Too bad they broke the
code for a person who was already dead. Omid Tahvili when he escaped
left behind some bundled blankets to make it appear he was still in
his bunk. His cellmate asked the CO where he went. Is North Fraser
Pre-Trial the least solid facility around?
HA
is involved with
extortion, homicide, kidnapping, prostitution, meth and cocaine
dealing, rape, armed robbery and motorcycle theft and child
pornography
as well as phony currency and witness intimidation and obstruction of
justice. They have been known to bribe and scare law enforcement
officers and judges into doing their bidding. These ppl must be
rooted
out of the Cdn justice system. Two judges have actually done their
job
and declared HAMC a criminal org and the Victoria Times-Colonist is
calling for it to be banned as a terrorist org.
"The Hells Angels should be treated as a domestic terror organization.
We should encourage those who make and enforce our laws in their
efforts to eradicate them."
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=517a2096-953a-4ea3-9507-ee3c5e8d39e2
The White Rock chapter Sgt.Of Arms, Villy Roy Lynnerup, recently was
arrested for trying to board an airplane at YVR
with a loaded firearm. Was probably going to crash the plane into the
Downtown courthouse or hold the passengers hostage in exchange for
the
release of Moms Boucher and all imprisoned full patch members. All
the
Hell's Angels, their supporters, associates etc. should be imprisoned
for twenty years
their children put in foster care and their assets seized.
Ppl are trying to get HAMC listed as a terrorist org. If you support
this
then write letters to editors of local newspapers and your local MP.
As well John Les the solicitor-general of BC has advocated banning
the wearing of gang colours such as biker patches in bars. Since HA
is
known to frequent Brandi’s and the Cecil and has links to
various bars in BC that would be an improvement. The gang has a
history of intimidating
bartenders, infiltrating unions involved in the bar industry, beating
and killing strippers and beating customers to death at random for no
reason. Contact your MLA as well as the local media and tell them you
want this implemented sooner rather than later.
VPD is appealing again for info about the homicide of Maria Yvette
Monzon who was shot dead on the westside of Vancouver. She was killed
by HA but the police have never stated that. There is a reward.
Colleen Reiter (Ryder?) of Surrey was killed by HAMC but the RCMP
refuse to confirm this.
We are awaiting the return of our JHVH in the flesh or his Son. His Son Yu'shua died on the cross for our sins, was resurrected and walked the earth for awhile then ascended unto Heaven. We await the Third Coming not the Second.
Scottish Quaker Robert Barclay-"The weighty Truths of God were neglected, and, as it were, went into Desuetude. ...
Who will be the last Coalition soldier to be maimed in Iraq?
Canadian troops out of Afghanistan and into Darfur.http://www.amnesty.ca/instantkarma/petition.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI-xlbDzVbQ I Like Big Bibles
Good luck to anyone trying to learn Hebrew. I am looking for a Hebrew-Gregorian calendar in both Hebrew and English lettering.