Lengthy jail term sought in arson, shooting attacks
Man targeted homes of people associated with Justice Institute of B.C.
The Crown is seeking a sentence of between 10 and 15 years in jail for a man who pleaded guilty to being the mastermind of a campaign of arson attacks and shootings against people linked to the Justice Institute of B.C.
On Thursday, Vincent Eric Gia-Hwa Cheung pleaded guilty to 18 counts related to the attacks on homes and cars associated with 15 families, between April 2011 and January 2012.
“Mr. Cheung hired and directed others or possibly personally participated in acts of arson on homes and vehicles as well as shootings into dwelling houses,” Crown counsel Joe Bellows said in sentencing submissions.
Bellows told B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen that the offences took place throughout the Lower Mainland in nine different municipalities, one of the victims being a retired West Vancouver police chief.
“In almost every case in which a dwelling house was set ablaze and in almost every case in which shots were fired into a dwelling house, that dwelling house was occupied,” Bellows told the judge.
In many of the cases where the homes were set on fire, the fire started in the very early morning hours when families were fast asleep, indicating that Cheung showed “no regard” for his victims, said Bellows.
“Gratefully, no one was physically injured in any of the offences but in my submission that was not a result of careful planning on the part of Mr. Cheung. It was just dumb luck that no one was severely wounded or killed by fire or gunshots.”
Until July 2011, by which time 15 separate arsons or shootings involving 11 different families had been committed, police had no idea the crimes were linked, said Bellows.
Then an email was sent to the Justice Institute, which trains police officers and other law enforcement officials.
The email, with a subject line that read “stop following people before someone gets hurt,” listed nine names, eight of whom were victims of arsons or shootings.
Police, now realizing that all of the offences were related, launched a joint investigation and asked ICBC to conduct an internal investigation.
The ICBC investigation revealed that all of the victims had their licence plates queried by an adjuster for a “non-business” purpose. The adjuster was fired but despite an ongoing investigation, has not yet been charged.
All of the victims had at some point parked their vehicles in the parking lot at the Justice Institute.
The victims included employees who worked at the Justice Institute, a student training to become a sheriff and a student taking a firearms course.
Also targeted in Jan. 13, 2012, was a West Vancouver home formerly owned by West Vancouver Police Chief Scott Armstrong.
At the time of the arson attack on the West Vancouver home, it was owned by others and was being rented to a female tenant living there alone.
In one case an elderly Burnaby woman, the mother of a corrections officer, was watching television when she heard a fire detector sound in her home. She went through the home and discovered a fire running along two walls in a basement suite.
She also found a red gas can on fire, the can half filled with a liquid suspected to be gasoline.
Bellows also described several attacks in which a number of bullets were fired into homes while the homeowners were asleep.
An associate of Cheung, who was under surveillance by police from between March and June 2014, told investigators that Cheung had told him he was responsible for all of the attacks, said Bellows.
The associate also told police that Cheung told him people were following him, he would take the plate and run it and it just so happened that all of the plates would go back to the Justice Institute.
On Wednesday, Thurman Taffe, Cheung’s co-accused, pleaded guilty to one arson-related count connected to an attack on a Surrey home. He is to be sentenced Aug. 22.