Homicide investigators look for clues in murder of Red Scorpions leader Matt Campbell

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      The reputed leader of the Red Scorpions gang has been murdered in broad daylight.

      Police have disclosed that Matthew Campbell was the man in his 30s who was found near the Abbotsford Auto Mall with a severe injury to his neck.

      Campbell, a close associate of the notorious Bacon brothers, died after being rushed to hospital on January 2.

      The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says that Campbell is well-known to police.

      Officers have been combing the area in the 30100 block of Automall Drive looking for any knives.

      No one has been publicly identified as a suspect.

      Campbell's death follows forecasted gang war

      Last year, former biker Alex Caine (a pseudonym), author of Charlie and the Angels: the Outlaws, the Hells Angels and the Sixty Years War, predicted that there would soon be a major gang war in B.C.

      He claimed in an interview with the Georgia Straight that the global turf battle between the Outlaws and the Hells Angels was linked to the execution-style killing of Red Scorpions leader Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna in 2011.

      Bacon was in a vehicle with a member of the Hells Angels at the time of the murder.

      Caine maintained that a "wolf pack" was being created to counter the Outlaws, who are based in the U.S. Midwest.

      He also alleged that the Outlaws have been eyeing British Columbia for quite some time.

      Canada's western province has traditionally been considered Hells Angels turf.

      Author Alex Caine predicts a major biker war is coming to B.C.

      Gang issue arises in Kelowna liquor-licence dispute

      In an unrelated development, a B.C. Court of Appeal ruling recently reinstated a liquor-licence suspension against a Kelowna nightclub for not adhering to licensing conditions banning any gang-affiliated identification.

      The decision linked the Hells Angels to a local Kelowna gang called the Kingpin Crew MC.

      According to the reasons for judgment by Justice David Tysoe, a police officer observed several motorcycle-gang members inside the Club Mediterranean Cabaret on January 12, 2012.

      "When one of these patrons left the table to walk to the washroom, the officer observed he was wearing a cap with the numbers '113' on the front and 'KINGPIN CREW MC' in smaller lettering on the back," Tysoe wrote. "The officer did not know the significance of the numbers (which were subsequently determined to refer to the 11th and 3rd letters of the alphabet, being 'K' and 'C'). The officer was aware that Kingpin Crew MC referred to a motorcycle gang with ties to the Hells Angels."

      Justices Ian Donald and Mary Saunders concurred with Tysoe's ruling against the club owner, Quail Place Estates Ltd.

      The decision noted that an adjudicator had imposed the maximum licence suspension of three days for a first offence.

      The cabaret owner successfully appealed the suspension in B.C. Supreme Court.

      Justice Geoffrey Barrow ruled in chambers last February that it was unreasonable to impose the maximum, and sent the file back to the adjudicator for reconsideration.

      The general manager of the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch appealed Barrow's decision.

      Tysoe's recent ruling centred on a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 2009 on the definition of "reasonableness" in Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v. Khosa.

      "What the chambers judge appears to have done was to reweigh the evidence and substitute his own view of an appropriate penalty," Tysoe wrote. "He seems to have concluded the appropriate penalty should have been less than the three-day 'maximum' suspension and, as a result, he found the adjudicator’s penalty to be unreasonable. The Supreme Court of Canada said in Khosa this is not the correct approach because it does not afford the required deference to the decision maker. It was not the function of the judge to make his own assessment of the quantum of the penalty."

      Comments

      5 Comments

      RAY

      Jan 4, 2014 at 1:07pm

      Who cares? Don't waste hard earned tax dollars on searching for, prosecuting and incarcerating the killer. Just give him a pat on the back and a wink.

      DavidH

      Jan 4, 2014 at 1:14pm

      Time to prioritize our policing expenses and the use of resources. A well-known member of a gang or drug ring? Nope. A 53-year-old hockey mom? Yep - everything we have.

      Abbotsford should just ignore the Campbell killing - which nobody gives a crap about - and send its surplus resources to Surrey, in an effort to find Julie Paskall's killer. Bring the big guns, boys.

      DanV

      Jan 4, 2014 at 5:50pm

      "God Willing" - Denzel Washington, Training Day - 2001

      4TehLulz

      Jan 5, 2014 at 7:11am

      Oh, Canada. Let natural selection work it's magic on these clowns. How come every time I see a picture of these punks they look like a New Jersey frat boy auditioning for a new MTV boy band reality show?

      What a bunch of wannabe amateurs. Always taking selfies in their Tony Soprano costumes, driving blinged out little sedans, trying so hard to look the part. Always getting caught, getting shot, getting killed.

      The real gangsters are the ones we never hear about. These kids are just a bunch of 10th grade bullies who are too dumb to stay out of the news, the prisons and the cemeteries. Good riddance. Next.

      Robert

      Jan 5, 2014 at 3:54pm

      Yeah, brainiacs, that's how we should improve police work in our highly advanced country: we will choose which murders to investigate based on how much we like the victim. Maybe get an app for that. The height of enlightened civilization.

      Christ on a stick the comments section on this site is just so very awful.