A week after a brazen gangland hit in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour, an alleged hitman has been charged with first-degree murder and possession of a loaded firearm with ammunition.
Francois Joseph Gauthier, 51, was charged Saturday in connection with the public execution of Brothers Keepers gangster Harb Dhaliwal about 8:30 p.m. April 17 on Coal Harbour Quay.
Someone in the Dhaliwal group then chased the alleged shooter, caught up with him and stabbed him in the eye on West Hastings Street.
Bleeding profusely, Gauthier then made his way to a nearby condo courtyard where police found him about 9 p.m. He remains in hospital.
No one has been charged in the stabbing.
In the days following the Vancouver homicide, 20-year-old Bailey McKinney was shot to death in a Coquitlam park and long-time United Nations gangster Todd Gouwenberg, 46, was hit by gunfire as he arrived at the Langley Sportsplex to work out with a trainer.
The McKinney slaying is not believed to be linked to the other two, but police are investigating the possibility that Gouwenberg’s shooting was in retaliation for Dhaliwal’s.
Insp. Michelle Tansey, acting head of the Integrated Investigation Homicide Team, said Thursday no link had yet been found.
The Brothers Keepers have been in a violent conflict with the UN, as well as the Kang/Red Scorpion gang, for the past several years.
Dhaliwal and his gangster brothers Barinder, the eldest, and Meninder, who is younger, have been targets of several shootings across the Lower Mainland over the past decade. Harb was injured by gunfire twice before he died, once in Abbotsford in October 2017 and again in Richmond in December 2018.
His two brothers and other associates were with the 31-year-old when he was shot on the busy waterfront street. A distraught Barinder shouted out Harb’s name as his brother lay dead on the sidewalk. He had to be held back by several police officers.
Asked whether a quick arrest might help cool down the violence in the gang world, former solicitor general and long-time police officer Kash Heed said “it’s a good start.”
“But I am not sure it is going to settle the situation as they have not arrested whoever ordered the hit,” he said Saturday.
The Dhaliwals grew up in Abbotsford where their family owns a farm near the border. A decade ago, they were connected to another trio of notorious Abbotsford brothers: Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon.
