Gangster talked of getting out shortly before shooting: Heed
MLA and former police officer chastises federal, provincial colleagues for lack of resources, action on preventing gang violence in Lower Mainland
Just months before his public execution Tuesday, gangster Sandip Duhre admitted he regretted his choices and would get out of the life if he could.
Duhre spoke frankly to Vancouver-Fraser view MLA Kash Heed during a chance encounter at a south Surrey restaurant in late summer, Heed recalled Wednesday. “He said he tried to get out of gang life, but it’s tough,” said Heed, former solicitor- general and longtime Vancouver police officer. “He talked about how people are trying to knock him off.”
Heed said Duhre, 36, struck up the conversation because he knew of Heed’s efforts to keep kids out of gangs in the aftermath of the 1998 Bindy Johal murder and other high- profile Vancouver slayings.
“We had a conversation about our young Indo- Canadian males,” Heed said. “I asked him what he would say to kids to keep them out of the life and he said: ‘ Don’t do this. It’s not worth it.’”
Heed was the Vancouver police department commander of District 3 when Duhre was shot at as he and his brother drove down Kingsway in July 2005 in a bulletproof sedan loaned to them by a Hells Angel.
“The bullets bounced off the windows,” Heed said. “He had survived attacks previously and just carried on.”
Heed said the chat was on a warm evening in late summer and Duhre was sitting on the patio of the Morgan Creek restaurant with two bodyguards.
“I told him that based on my experience there are three outcomes — you end up in jail, an addict or dead,” Heed said.
“We actually talked for quite a while about prevention.”
Vancouver police continue to gather evidence in the targeted slaying inside the Cafe One restaurant in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Centre about 8: 45 p. m. Tuesday. The unmasked shooter walked out a hotel door after firing several rounds into Duhre’s face.
It was the latest in a series of brazen gang shootings in public places, including the August 2011 murder of former Duhre ally Jon Bacon outside a Kelowna hotel and the October 2010 hit on Duhre associate Gurmit Dhak at Burnaby’s Metrotown Mall.
Heed said he wasn’t surprised to learn that the former associate of Bindy Johal had been killed. “He lived the life like a lot of these gang members — fast but short,” Heed said. He said while Duhre’s death may mark the end of an era of older gangsters connected to Vancouver’s south slope, “it is the beginning of an era for another gangster.” “With Duhre gone, the void will be filled automatically. His connections, territory and criminal activities will be taken over by someone, if it already hasn’t been.”
Even worse, Heed said, will be the almost inevitable revenge attacks. “There will be retaliation here. I am sure of this,” he said.
He chastised his federal and provincial colleagues for not doing more to tackle gang violence.
“If we could put the effort into dealing with our gangs and youth instead of pouring resources into investigating young drunk people involved in a riot, we would have more success than we’ve had,” Heed said. “For years, I have called for comprehensive strategies.”
Police have made gains in intervening in gang violence and suppressing some of it, “but what we are missing is the prevention piece.”
Higher- level crime groups have flourished as mid- level gangs wreaked havoc on city streets.
“We do not have the resources to go after major organized crime groups that have operated in B. C. for years,” he said.