Public in danger if B.C. gangster remains on bail, prosecutor says

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A federal prosecutor told a B.C. Supreme Court judge on Tuesday that delaying a sentencing hearing for a Brothers Keepers gangster who is the target of killers increases the danger to the public.

Irene Sattarzadeh said she opposed a delay in sentencing for Amandeep Kang, who was shot last week at his family’s Cloverdale home.

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“I think Mr. Kang being out on bail in the community continues to raise massive public safety concerns,” Sattarzadeh told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes.

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Kang’s lawyer Michael Klein said that his client had been released from the hospital after the March 26 shooting but returned to hospital Tuesday morning for a possible infection in his injured arm.

“It appears that he is now battling an infection and unfortunately not going to be here for the sentencing hearing,” Klein said, asking for an adjournment until April 17.

But Sattarzadeh said that even 17 days was too long for Kang to be on the streets.

She noted that the Kang home had rental suites in it near where Kang was shot about 10:44 p.m. by unknown assailants.

“The police are aware there are several rental units in the back of the residence and there are tenants there. Where Mr. Kang was shot in front of the garage, if the shooters had missed, so to speak, and the bullet had gone through the back of the garage, the rental units are on the back side,” Sattarzadeh said.

She also cited the attempted murder of Kang associate Jagraj Atwal on Robson near Richards on Saturday at about 5:40 p.m. No one was injured.

“It was a brazen daytime shooting. And I have been advised that was also a member of the Brothers Keepers organized crime group,” she told Holmes.

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The Brothers Keepers is one of the warring factions in the B.C. gang conflict and has been targeted by both the United Nations gang and some members of what’s known as the BIBO/Kang group.

Klein said that Kang had been out on bail a long time and yet only recently had there been an attempt on his life.

“I don’t know that there is much that we can do about that,” he told Holmes.

But Sattarzadeh said she disagrees and that “the risk has wholly manifested itself now. Mr. Kang has been the subject of prior threats of violence against his life. And the police have had to take enforcement action in the regard to Mr. Kang in the course of this file.”

Holmes adjourned the sentencing hearing to April 5, when it’s expected Kang will be able to attend.

In October, Kang pleaded guilty to drug trafficking on behalf of a criminal organization and conspiracy to traffic drugs across the province.

The charges, laid in 2021, stemmed from a three-year investigation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit targeting the Brothers Keepers gang.

Kang admitted that he worked with associates, including the late Jaskeert Kalkat, to sell fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamines and cocaine in several B.C. cities.

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Kalkat, a high-profile BK member, was shot to death in May 2021 in the parking lot of Burnaby’s Market Crossing mall on Marine Way. His murder remains unsolved. His brother was killed in Calgary 10 days later.

kbolan@postmedia.com

X.com/kbolan

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