Homicide investigators are investigating a targeted shooting that killed two men with gang ties at the Executive Inn hotel in Burnaby.
Gangster Sukh Dhak and bodyguard Thomas Mantel are reported to be the victims, according Kim Bolan of The Vancouver Sun.
Two bodies were seen inside the lobby and entrance of the hotel on Monday. Shattered glass littered the sidewalk outside.
Both men were pronounced dead at the scene.
Dhak, 28, is currently on trial in a B.C. Supreme Court case where the Crown alleges he was the mastermind behind a large-scale ecstasy lab.
Dhak's brother, Gurmit Dhak, was gunned down outside the Metrotown mall in October 2010, according to CBC News.
Mantel, 30, has charges of dangerous driving and obstructing a police officer pending from 2010, reported The Vancouver Sun.
Police have issued public warnings before about retaliation violence between rival gangs. The Dhak group, which is allied with the Duhre brothers and the United Nations gang are said to be enemies with the Red Scorpions and their partners, the Independent Soldiers and the Hells Angels.
"This callous shooting occurred in a very public location which could have injured or taken the lives of many innocent people," said Sgt. Jennifer Pound of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team in a news release on Monday.
Timothy W. Go reported on Twitter that an eyewitness told him he heard about 15 shots fired from outside the hotel.
