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Alleged Abbotsford shooter adds more charges to a long list

Russell Mayhew, one of two accused of a drive-by shooting last week, is before the courts for almost 30 offences
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Russell Mayhew is one of two men charged with a drive-by shooting last week in Abbotsford.

A man who police have previously described as “gang-involved” is one of two people charged in relation to a drive-by shooting last week in Abbotsford.

Russell Jordan Mayhew, 30, faces five charges – careless use of a firearm, pointing a firearm, discharging a firearm with intent to wound, and two counts related to possessing a firearm without a licence.

Co-accused James Alexander Breckenridge (in photo at left), 26, faces the same five charges.

Police were called just after 1 a.m. last Wednesday after receiving reports of a verbal dispute and shots fired in the 34100 block of George Ferguson Way.

No one was injured, but when police arrived, a vehicle parked in a driveway was found to have bullet holes.

Witnesses said they saw a truck flee the area.

Two suspects were later arrested in Abbotsford and a third was taken into custody in Langley.

It’s not yet known whether charges will be laid against the third man.

Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said it appears that the incident involved a dispute among people known to one another and is not related to the ongoing Townline Hill gang conflict.

Mayhew also faces new charges of aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, unlawful confinement, assault with a weapon, and sexual assault with a weapon.

That alleged incident occurred on June 27 – two days before the shooting – and MacDonald said it involved someone known to Mayhew. He did not have any other details.

These latest charges are among a long list of offences with which Mayhew has been accused and convicted of over the last few years.

He has been in and out of prison for crimes that include drug possession and trafficking, break and enter, assault, driving while prohibited, breaching his conditions and resisting a police officer.

In March 2010, Mayhew was the subject of an Abbotsford News’ video when police went to a home in Clayburn Village to arrest him on a warrant after he had failed to show up for scheduled court appearances.

At first, Mayhew refused to surrender, but he emerged from the front door about 40 minutes later and was taken into custody.

In 2012, he was arrested three times in a five-month span for incidents that involved uttering threats, drug possession and breaching his bail conditions.

In one of those instances – in November of that year – Breckenridge was arrested with Mayhew. The two were each charged with three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Mayhew was sentenced to a 10-month jail term the following year and was also handed a three-year driving prohibition and a 10-year firearms ban.

Breckenridge was sentenced to just over three years in jail and a lifetime weapons ban. His only other prior conviction in B.C. was for possessing an unauthorized "non-firearm."

In November 2015, Mayhew was arrested in relation to the armed robberies of two restaurants in Maple Ridge. He and a woman were arrested in Langley in a vehicle that police said had been reported stolen in a carjacking in Surrey a few days prior.

At the time, he was wanted on four outstanding warrants.

In addition to the 10 new charges related to the shooting and the sexual assault, Mayhew is currently before the courts on almost 20 other charges, including ones related to the Maple Ridge robberies.

Among the other charges are possession for the purpose of trafficking, several breach charges, driving while prohibited, robbery, resisting a police officer and using a firearm in the commission of an offence.

(Below: Video from Russell Mayhew's 2010 arrest)



Vikki Hopes

About the Author: Vikki Hopes

I have been a journalist for almost 40 years, and have been at the Abbotsford News since 1991.
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