Gunned-down gangster arrested in Abbotsford in 2006
by Sarah Payne and Gary McKenna, Black Press
The gangster fatally gunned down in Port Moody on Monday afternoon was among five men arrested in Abbotsford after a police bust at an amusement park in 2006.
Randynesh (Randy) Naicker, 35, described as one of the founders of the Independent Soldiers gang, was among alleged gang associates – including Jamie Bacon and Dennis Karbovanec – attending a meeting at Castle Fun Park in December of that year.
Police attended the scene after receiving reports of a man wearing body armour. They arrived to find a group of men in their mid-20s exiting the park.
Five of them were arrested, including Naicker, who was on bail for kidnapping charges at the time and was charged with breaching his conditions.
Bacon was also charged with breach, while Karbovanec and two other men – Justin Prince and Jeff Harvey – faced weapons charges.
Karbovanec, a former Mission resident and associate of the Bacon brothers, is currently serving a life sentence for killing three of six people in a Surrey highrise in 2007.
Bacon is in prison awaiting trial in the same case.
Naicker was later convicted of kidnapping a Surrey gangster in 2005 after two associates were murdered and $400,000 worth of marijuana went missing.
He was sentenced to five years in prison. In 2009, Naicker told the Parole Board of Canada that he wasn't worried about rival gangs targeting him, despite another resident of his halfway house being gunned down just a few months earlier.
Police believed the victim in that incident was mistakenly killed by someone looking for Naicker.
According to witnesses who were standing outside when Naicker was shot near the Starbucks on Queen Street at about 4:45 p.m. Monday, at least one masked man dressed in black got out of a dark green SUV and shot Naicker several times.
"I was sitting here having a cup of chai when I heard a shooting sound," said Chandermari Bhatt, the owner of Aroma Indian restaurant, located at the bottom of the Queen Street plaza.
Bhatt said he looked up towards St. Johns and saw a masked man with a handgun shoot the victim several more times before jumping back in the vehicle, which sped west along Spring Street.
Naicker had collapsed between his grey Infiniti SUV, which had the driver's side window shot out, and another vehicle.
Bhatt ran up the street to the victim, who had been shot in the head. Other witnesses also attempted to provide first aid but it was too late.
Maryam Heidari, who works at Aroma, said she was also sitting outside and expressed surprise at the shooting, saying she expected something like that to happen back home in Afghanistan but not in Port Moody.
And Bhatt told The Tri-City News, "Port Moody is a very nice city but today I am very scared."
Several bystanders who gathered in the plaza said they couldn't believe another shooting had happened in the quiet town.
"That's random. Is it gangs?" one young man asked. "That's scary."
Gurbinder (Bin) Singh Toor, a Surrey man with links to the Dhak/Duhre gang, was shot in the parking lot of the PoMo recreation centre on the evening of May 30 as he got out of his vehicle to go to a ball hockey game.
The Abbotsford Police Department has previously identified the Duhre Gang as the dominant organization operating in the city.
Const. Ian MacDonald said the Independent Soldiers are not a large presence in Abbotsford, although they are like other gangs in that they will go where there is money to be made.
According to a source who knew Naicker, he was trying to turn his life around and extract himself from the gang lifestyle.
"He was trying to keep his nose clean," he said. "The reason why he wanted to stay clean is because he was sick of this stuff. This is what he was afraid of."
The VPD are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact the homicide unit at 604-717-2500 or, if you wish to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
– With files from the Abbotsford News
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