A longtime gangster was killed and another man wounded in a targeted shooting in Coal Harbour on Monday night.
Dead is Tejinder Singh “Tee” Malli, 29, who was once aligned with the Red Scorpion gang, but went on to switch gang allegiances several times.
He was charged in 2009 in the VPD’s Project Rebellion that targeted gang violence in south Vancouver. But those charges were later stayed.
At the time of Project Rebellion, Malli was aligned with the Buttar group headed by Manny Buttar, but they later parted ways.
He was believed to have had an on-going dispute with someone linked to the United Nations gang.
Vancouver Police Sgt. Randy Fincham said the two victims were sitting in a parked vehicle at around 10:30 p.m. outside the Shaw Tower at 1067 West Cordova, when the suspects either walked up to the car or drove up and fired multiple rounds into the car.
He said the wounded man, a 28-year-old man from North Vancouver, got out of the car and ran. Emergency crews found him a block away and he was taken to Vancouver General Hospital.
Malli remained in the vehicle, where emergency responders found him and rushed him to VGH, which was locked down after the victims arrived. Malli later died from his injuries.
Fincham said early Tuesday that the North Vancouver man is in stable condition and expected to survive. He confirmed both are connected to gangs and the drug trade.
Coal Harbour remained locked down Tuesday morning.
Many people witnessed the shooting in the busy downtown area, and police are asking anyone who may have seen something to call police as investigators try to piece together what happened.
“There were quite a few witnesses and so we are getting a lot of different accounts. We’re not 100 per cent sure at this point what happened. As you can imagine, it was a pretty hectic scene last night,” Fincham said.
Cordova Street was expected to remain closed between Burrard and Bute for several hours Tuesday morning.
This is Vancouver’s second homicide of 2014.
A neighbour said she was in her apartment with her boyfriend when she heard what she thought was the blasts of six of seven fireworks.
Her boyfriend ran to their apartment window and saw two men run west down Cordova and jump into the backseats of a waiting silver SUV, which then sped off southbound on Bute Street.
“It’s really alarming, I had just walked down Cordova ten minutes prior,” she said. “I never feel unsafe here at all.
“To hear something like that and see this happening - it’s just a little scary.”
More than 10 police cruisers had West Cordova Street blocked off from Burrard to Bute as stunned residents nervously waited to get into their condos atop the 24 floors of the Shaw Tower.
She said her boyfriend and a number of other eyewitnesses were bused away for further police questioning late Monday night.
