Two men targeted in separate weekend shootings in Vancouver are from rival gangs that have been warring with each other across the region for years.
The Vancouver Sun has learned the target of an East Hastings drive-by shooting Sunday that left 28-year-old Mia Deakin wounded was gangster Jeffrey Chang.
Chang, 27, is involved in the Wolf Pack gang alliance and has been the subject of several recent warnings from police about threats to his life, sources said.
The man shot to death Saturday night on Gladstone Street was 33-year-old Thanh Tung Tran, a longtime drug trafficker connected to Billy’s Crew and the Dhak brothers — known rivals of the Wolf Pack.
Vancouver Police Sgt. Randy Fincham said major crime detectives are investigating whether the shootings are linked.
“We are looking to see if there is a connection between both incidents. That has yet to be determined,” he said.
Chang received minor injuries to his hand in the shooting at a Chevron gas station on East Hastings between Vernon and Clark drives just after 7 p.m. Sunday
He fled the scene but was apprehended by police a short distance away and treated in hospital for his wound before being released Sunday night.
Chang was arrested hours later on a warrant issued in April on two counts of driving while prohibited. Chang has now been released on $100 bail and ordered to appear again in community court June 23.
Deakin, the daughter of Real Housewives of Vancouver star Jody Claman, was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to her shoulder after Sunday’s shooting, Fincham said.
“The woman was rushed to the hospital with fairly serious injuries,” he said.
He declined to confirm the names of either Chang or Deakin, but The Sun learned the identities from several sources.
Fincham said investigators believe Sunday’s shooting was targeted and said a silver or grey SUV was seen racing east from the scene along Hastings.
He also warned young woman to stay away from men with criminal histories and gang connections.
“To be a girlfriend, or a friend, or an associate of a gangster in Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, or anywhere is again a very dangerous lifestyle choice,” Fincham said. “In the last few years we have seen an increase with women being involved in gang violence, whether it be an intended target or whether it being an accidental target of potential gangland hits.”
He said police are “warning young women to be very careful who they are associating with because we would hate to see something happen to them just because they are hanging out with the wrong person.”
Other cast members of the Real Housewives show were tweeting out messages of support for Deakin Monday. Her mother did not respond to requests for an interview.
Chang is the younger brother of slain gangster Jonathan Chu-Ka Chang, who was 27 when he was sprayed with gunfire behind a Burnaby gym on Oct. 14, 2009. The murder remains unsolved.
Saturday’s murder victim, Tran, was shot to death about 11:30 p.m. on the steps of his house on Gladstone, near East 29th Avenue.
Several residents in the quiet neighbourhood called police after hearing shots fired.
Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Tran was “a long time Vancouver guy with deep connections on the Kingsway corridor.”
Houghton said Tran “has long standing ties to” Billy’s Crew, headed by a former Vancouver man named Billy Tran, who’s now believed to be living in Vietnam. Billy Tran was caught by CFSEU along with other gang members in Vancouver’s Kensington Park in Oct. 2010 plotting retaliation for the murder of Gurmit Dhak days earlier.
Houghton said while two gang shootings in less than 24 hours might be alarming, gang violence is down in Metro Vancouver overall this year.
“Two incidents certainly does not make a trend,” he said.
