Dennis Karbovanec associate of the Red Scorpion gang was shot New Year’s Eve

Dennis Karbovanec was stopped by Abbotsford police last October wearing a bulletproof vest, it was apparently for good reason.The 27-year-old associate of the Red Scorpion gang was shot New Year’s Eve, but survived with non-life-threatening injuries.Karbovanec, who was out on bail on a series of charges, arrived at Mission Memorial Hospital about 10:30 p.m. — again wearing body armour — and suffering from gunshot wounds. He was later released, police confirmed.RCMP Cpl. Paul Grewal said Monday he could not say much about the shooting because there is an active investigation.“There was a male who came into the hospital with gunshot wounds,” Grewal said. “He didn’t arrive by car. He walked in.” Grewal said police did not know where the shooting occurred, and he would not say whether Karbovanec was cooperating with the investigation.He confirmed that Mission’s general investigation section was working with the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force in the probe.
“In all these shootings that are gang-related, there is always the possibility of retaliation,” Grewal said.Karbovanec’s close friend Jonathan Bacon arrived at the hospital a short time later to see how his wounded associate was doing.The Vancouver Sun earlier reported that Karbovanec and Bacon had co-signed a car lease together in October 2007, both listing their home addresses as the Bacon’s family residence on Strathcona Crescent in Abbotsford.Karbovanec signed a second vehicle lease a month later for a GMC Yukon Denali, listing his address on the 15th floor of a highrise in the 3000-block of Clearbrook Road in Abbotsford.He was in the Yukon when Abbotsford Police stopped him on an outstanding warrant Oct. 23 in the Matsqui Trail Park on Riverside Road about 1:30 p.m.Const. Casey Vinet said at the time that Karbovanec was wearing body armour and that a search of the SUV revealed a loaded handgun and silencer in a hidden compartment.He was charged with 11 counts and is due back in court in January.


Both Jonathan Bacon and Karbovanec are associates of the Red Scorpion gang, which police believe is linked to the murders of six people at Surrey’s Balmoral Tower in October 2007.


Sgt. Shinder Kirk, of the gang task force, said Monday that any time there is a targeted shooting of someone linked to organized crime, police monitor the situation closely to head off retaliation.


“Any time we have violence against members of a crime group or suspected members of a crime group, there is always the possibility of retaliatory violence and that is of great concern to us,” Kirk said. He said task force members will intercede in any way possible to make sure there is not further violence.


Last May, the task force issued an extraordinary public warning to anyone who associated with Jonathan Bacon or his brothers Jarrod and Jamie, saying the trio had been targeted for death and that others could innocently get caught up in the potential violence.


The same day, the two younger Bacons were charged with a series of firearm offences that are still before the courts.


Kirk said Monday the public warning regarding the Bacons and their associates “is still in force.”

Hung Van (Scarface) Bui, was found slumped in the driver's seat of a car , the victim of a targeted shooting.

Hung Van (Scarface) Bui, 27, was found slumped in the driver's seat of a car Monday night, the victim of a targeted shooting.A man who died in a hail of bullets in a Vancouver street Monday was a marked man -- one who survived one of the city's worst mass shootings but left behind a trail of death and violence in British Columbia and Alberta going back almost a decade.Police have not identified the victim but a high-placed source told the Vancouver Province it was Bui -- a man with well-known criminal affiliations who survived last summer's gangland style slayings at Fortune Happiness restaurant.They came back and finished him off," said the source.
The Aug. 9 shooting at the all-night eatery -- where two masked gunmen opened fire on a table of nine people, killing two people and injuring six, including Bui -- remains unsolved.Bui was shot at least six times, said the source, but survived his wounds. He had "a million enemies" and was known to have been involved in ripping off drug dealers, added the source.Bui was also the prime suspect in the 1999 murder of 35-year-old UPS courier Andrew Allan, who was stabbed once in the abdomen in the parking lot of an Edmonton curling club.

Ricardo Francis Scarpino contract Killing

One of the men shot to death Saturday night outside an upscale downtown restaurant had notorious Vancouver Island connections.
Ricardo Francis Scarpino, a 37-year-old from West Vancouver, has been identified as one of the two victims shot dead in front of a Vancouver restaurant Saturday in the city's latest gangland-style shooting.Witness said she heard six shots
Scarpino was driving an SUV on his way to his own engagement party at Gotham, an upscale steakhouse in downtown Vancouver, police said, when the incident happened.
Scarpino, his fiancée and two other men were in the 2007 Land Rover when it stopped in front of the restaurant shortly after 10 p.m. and shots rang out.

Scarpino was driving an SUV on his way to his own engagement party at Gotham, an upscale steakhouse in downtown Vancouver, police said, when the incident happened.
Scarpino, his fiancée and two other men were in the 2007 Land Rover when it stopped in front of the restaurant shortly after 10 p.m. and shots rang out.
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Vancouver police spokesman Const. Tim Fanning described the incident as a "targeted shooting."
"As they were about to get out of the car, two men ran west across the street ... fired a number of shots into the car, killing two of the men," said Fanning.
He said Scarpino was "well-known" to police and and that he was involved in criminal activity.
"[Scarpino] was tied to a lot of other criminals and involved in criminal activity and that's why we believe it's a targeted attack and he was on someone's list to kill."

The other victim was a 38-year-old man, also from West Vancouver. He was not known to police.
That victim's name has not been released.
Police said the area where the restaurant is located is one of the busiest parts of downtown Vancouver at night.
After the shooting, the suspects fled on foot, and "disappeared" between buildings, according to police.
More than 200 witnesses have already been interviewed, leading to conflicting descriptions, police say.
A few blocks away two guns were recovered Saturday night, but police would not confirm if they were involved in the incident
Party guest taken into custody
Meanwhile, a 47-year-old Vancouver man who was a guest at the engagement party has been taken into custody on weapons and drug charges
Shortly after the shooting, police said, two men tried to leave the restaurant and one of them dropped a semi-automatic handgun to the ground
Fanning said the man was handcuffed and he was found to have a small amount of cocaine on him.
The man was not identified, but Fanning said he was not known to police.

Dave Butorac

Dave Butorac, 29, a resident of suburban Aldergrove, just east of Vancouver, is charged in the second-degree murder last year of two drug-addicted prostitutes - one in Abbotsford and the other in Langley, B.C.
The body of a third woman was found near his home two years ago but Butorac has not been charged with her death. Cpl. Dale Carr of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said the evidence pointed to "what we considered possibly a serial killer.""We're looking at him strongly for other homicides, I can't get into the evidence we have gathered," Carr told reporters.
Police are also looking for a white Chevrolet Cavalier Z24 coupe linked to the accused.
there's been a lot of attention focused on the services available to prostitutes in the Downtown Eastside after serial-killer Robert Pickton was convicted last month of second-degree murder in the deaths of six women. But the needs of vulnerable women in other areas can't be ignored.
"Willy Pickton is gone but there's so many other women who are continuing on in the lifestyle of sex-trade work that's really risky that there's not enough support for them," she says.