Mia Deakin’s father relieved she’ll recover from shooting
Calgary developer Michael Deakin was enjoying his morning coffee Monday when he got a devastating 6 a. m. call from his Vancouver- based son.
“I’m thinking what the hell is he doing up so early?” Deakin said in an interview.
“He said ‘ I’ve got some bad news for you. Are you sitting down?’ He said, ‘ Mia was shot last night.’ ”
Mia Deakin, daughter of Real Housewives of Vancouver star Jody Claman, was wounded last Sunday evening in a drive- by shooting on East Hastings.
The intended target is presumed to have been her boyfriend Jeffrey Chang, who has links to the Wolf Pack gang alliance. He escaped severe injury.
Michael Deakin was stunned to learn his 28- year- old daughter had been caught in a gangland shooting.
“I said ‘ What?’ I was completely taken aback,” Deakin said.
He began frantic hours of calling Vancouver police and Vancouver General Hospital, desperate to get information about his daughter’s condition.
“I was freaking out. No one would tell me anything over the phone.”
He decided to fly to B. C. in an unsuccessful bid to see Mia Monday afternoon.
“I had 24 roses for her. It was me and Mia’s half- brother Ryan,” Deakin said.
He thinks his ex- wife Claman, with whom he has a rocky relationship, “put the kibosh” on his visit.
He’s since been able to talk to his daughter on the phone and was relieved to hear she’s doing OK.
Deakin said he warned Claman several times about the people Mia was associating with.
“I said ‘ You’ve got your little girl there — she’s running with these guys. I’m not there. What are you going to do about it?’ ” Deakin recalled.
He said he was repeatedly reassured that everything was OK.
Deakin said he met Chang recently when Mia and her companion passed through Calgary after a European vacation that included stops in Paris and Switzerland.
“He seemed like a nice enough fellow,” Deakin said, adding he suspected Chang wasn’t in legitimate business.
“Hello? I’m not naive. I didn’t fall off the banana boat yesterday,” he said.
Jody Claman, Mia’s mother and Deakin’s ex- wife, hung up on a Sun reporter twice Friday.
“We are not interested in your trash stories,” she said. When the reporter called back, she said: “Our calls are being recorded by the RCMP” and hung up again.
She has filed a defamation lawsuit against Mary Zilba, another Real Housewives of Vancouver star, for comments she made after Sunday’s shooting.
Vancouver Police Const. Brian Montague said Friday that the investigation into the suspected gang shooting is ongoing.
Both victims have been interviewed by police and surveillance video from the area has been seized, he said.
Montague said the VPD is not withdrawing its warning to young women to steer clear of gangsters that was issued in the aftermath of Sunday’s shooting.