It was a busy year for city's homicide officers
Murder rate rose slightly thanks to gang violence, domestic killings
From the slaying of a popular Downtown Eastside resident on New Year's Day 2020 to the disturbing, execution-style shooting of a Burnaby boy this week, the year has been busy for homicide investigators across the Lower Mainland.
Jesus Cristobal-Esteban, 62, only lived half a day into 2020. He sustained a serious head injury in an altercation in Oppenheimer Park on Jan. 1 and died the next day in hospital. Two months later, Vancouver police arrested Glen Domenic Martin, who was charged with manslaughter.
Fourteen-year-old Tequel Willis died three days before the year's end in a targeted shooting in Surrey on Monday night. Despite his tender age, he was already wellknown to police.
The murder rate across the region was up slightly in 2020, according to statistics provided by the Vancouver Police Department and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.
IHIT has had 36 new homicide files so far this year, accounting for 38 victims in total. Last year there were 37 new cases also resulting in 38 deaths, Sgt. Frank Jang said Wednesday.
Vancouver police have had 19 murders so far in 2020, up from just 10 in 2019 and 15 in 2018, Sgt. Steve Addison said.
Addison noted that “there is no discernible pattern or connections that account for these numbers.” In fact, a review of the Vancouver cases shows that 2020 murder victims died by gunfire, by stabbing and by assaults.
Likewise, in IHIT's jurisdiction, which stretches from Pemberton and the Sunshine Coast to Boston Bar, there were horrific domestic murders, gang hits and random attacks resulting in death. Some were brazen public slayings and others happened privately.
Jang said the number of gang-related or organized-crime-linked murders was down slightly this year.
“The numbers actually tell us that the organized-crime-related homicides have gone down a bit,” he said, adding that it doesn't appear to be a significant trend. “There are homicides related to drugs and gangs — organized crime. And then you also have the domestic-related ones which we've seen here in the past few months — several homicides involving members of the same family.”
The worst of the domestic cases related to the slayings June 13 of Tatiana Bazyar, 50, Francesco Zangrilli, 46, and Medea (Befrin) Ebrahimian, 23. All three were found after a fire at their home in Langley's Willowbrook neighbourhood. Kia Ebrahimian, 24, was charged less than a month later in the murders of his mom, sister and Zangrilli.
Jang said he couldn't really speculate on whether stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic had led to some of the domestic murders in 2020.
“But certainly … during the pandemic months, we've had domestic-related homicides,” he said. “Whether you can attribute that to being locked up at home or having your regular routine disrupted, I don't know.”
And while gang and organized crime murders were down slightly, there were still some high-profile cases.
On Sept. 18, alleged international money launderers Jian Zhu and Paul Jin were shot as they sat with others in a Richmond sushi restaurant. Zhu was killed and Jin wounded. No one has been charged.
Two days earlier, Iqubal Grewal, 23, was shot to death in South Vancouver after he had switched allegiances from the Brothers Keepers gang to the UN gang.
Several shootings and slayings in 2020 had links to what police describe as the “Lower Mainland gang conflict.”
Jang said the gang murders often get more public attention because they happen out in the open at gas stations, outside malls and in restaurants. He cited the Nov. 29 murder of Riyad Rasheed, 29, outside a busy Shoppers Drug Mart at 152nd Street and Fraser Highway in Surrey as one that could have resulted in bystanders being “collateral damage”
“We understand when there's a shooting in the public and it appears to be gang-related or drug-related, it does significantly change people's perceptions,” Jang said.