Ravinder Samra was murdered Friday, just two months after his brother met the same fate.
Just two months after his younger brother was shot to death in South Vancouver, United Nations gangster Ravinder Samra was killed Thursday in Richmond in another targeted attack.
Samra, 36, was struck several times by a shooter or shooters in the 8000-block of Minler Road, near Blundell, about 5:45 p.m.
You are reading: UN gangster killed in Richmond, just two months after his brother was fatally shot
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team’s Cpl. Sukhi Dhesi said Friday that Samra’s murder “was a targeted shooting associated to the B.C. gang conflict.”
“These are unsettling incidents for members of our community. I urge anyone who wishes to talk to someone to contact victim services and IHIT investigators,” Dhesi said.
Witnesses said they heard four to five popping sounds, followed by what sounded like machine gun fire.
Like his murdered brother Amarpreet (Chucky) Samra, Ravinder had been the subject of a warning last summer. Police urged the public to steer clear of them and several others believed to be involved in the now B.C.-wide gang conflict.
Both Samra brothers are believed to have been targeted by killers for the rival Brothers Keepers. Both were suspects in other murders at the time of their deaths.
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Back in June 2015, the elder Samra and an associate made their way to Surrey Memorial Hospital with gunshot wounds after a shootout between two vehicles driving along Highway 10 at 187th Street.
Samra and his friend refused to tell police anything about their injuries or the earlier shooting.
According to a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed in 2015, police seized a 2003 BMW X5 that Samra had been driving and obtained a search warrant for it.
“Surrey RCMP officers observed bullet holes in the windows and doors, and located a cell phone…a bullet, and blood in the vehicle,” the lawsuit said.
It said the vehicle should be forfeited as an instrument of criminal activity because Samra used it for trafficking, as well as “other activities for the benefit of, in association with, at the direction of, or to enhance the ability of a criminal organization.”
“Mr. Samra has a criminal record that includes assault with a weapon, failing to stop for police, and use of an imitation firearm in the commission of an offence,” the statement of claim noted.
The car was later forfeited.
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After a February 2017 lawsuit filed by the director of civil forfeiture, several thousand dollars seized from two Surrey houses were turned over to the government as proceeds of drug trafficking.
The lawsuit said the money was seized after B.C.’s anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit “commenced investigation into gang-related shootings throughout the Lower Mainland.”
“Ravinder Samra was identified during the investigation as he had been targeted and shot.”
Officers watched as Samra and a woman conducted “meetings consistent with drug trafficking,” before executing two search warrants in May 2015. They found the cash, a pill press, brass knuckles, nunchucks and score sheets used to tally drug debts and earnings.
The lawsuit, filed July 19, says the brothers were running “a dial-a-dope drug trafficking business” last October when IHIT investigators executed various search warrants in connection with an unspecified case.
IHIT’s Dhesi also confirmed Friday that a vehicle found “fully engulfed in flames” in the 12000-block of Blundell about 10 minutes after Samra’s murder is believed to be linked to the suspect or suspects in the slaying.
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