Gangster visits site of shooting, gets arrested
Man charged in 2019 murder picked up by police a day after his friend was killed
A Surrey gangster now charged in a 2019 murder was arrested Monday, after he showed up at the scene of a fatal shooting that had occurred the night before.
Munroop Hayer, 27, appeared in Surrey Provincial Court Wednesday on one count of first-degree murder in the Nov. 11, 2019, slaying of Andrew James Baldwin. Hayer's next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 16.
Postmedia has learned that Hayer was recognized by officers from Surrey RCMP's gang enforcement team when he arrived at the spot where his friend Riyad Rasheed was gunned down Sunday night, outside a Shoppers Drug Mart in Fleetwood.
Baldwin, 30, was found critically injured by Surrey Mounties who were responding to a disturbance call in the 10700 block of 124th Street.
Just three weeks earlier his younger brother Keith, 27, was shot to death in Chilliwack.
Integrated Homicide Investigation Team leader, Supt. Dave Chauhan, offered condolences to Baldwin's mother Julie MacDonald at a Surrey news conference Wednesday.
“I know that Julie has gone through considerable hardship this past year with the loss of her two sons and my thoughts are with her today,” Chauhan said.
“Andrew's life was taken in a senseless act of violence.”
He said the “evidence trail” led to several suspects. In January, Jordan Bottomley and Jagpal Hothi were charged with first-degree murder in Baldwin's death.
Another man, Jasman Basran of Surrey, was charged in May with being an accessory after the fact.
“IHIT's commitment is to ensure that each and every person complicit in a homicide is held to account,” Chauhan said.
“I feel we have successfully demonstrated that in this investigation.”
Sgt. Frank Jang read a statement from Baldwin's mother, who thanked investigators for all their work on the file.
“We appreciate your unwavering commitment to solving our beloved Andrew James Baldwin's murder,” she said.
She said Andrew was an honour-roll student who loved baseball, soccer and lacrosse growing up.
He was a big Canucks fan. He worked as a concrete framer at the time of his murder.
“Andrew was a caring, giving person and his loyalty to his family,
I know that Julie (MacDonald) has gone through considerable hardship this past year with the loss of her two sons.
friends, loved ones and co-workers was unwavering,” she said.
Surrey RCMP Supt. Elija Rain, who heads the detachment's investigative services section, said that Hayer “is well-known to the police on the Lower Mainland.”
In 2015, he was identified by Mounties as one of those involved in an ongoing gang conflict in Surrey and Delta.
Rasheed, 29, was gunned down about 7:41 p.m. on Sunday, near the leased Porsche Cayenne he had parked in a busy shopping plaza at Fraser Highway and 152nd Street.
Jang said earlier this week that his murder was targeted and believed to be part of the continuing Lower Mainland gang conflict.
Hayer and Rasheed both have connections to the United Nations gang, according to Postmedia sources.
No one has yet been charged in the fatal shooting of Baldwin's brother Keith on Oct. 21, 2019.
Despite recent gun violence, murder cases in IHIT's jurisdiction are down slightly in the first 11 months of this year.
From January to the end of November 2020, there have been 30 slayings. During the same period last year, there were 34.