Ricardo Scarpino, 37, was gunned down after he arrived at Gotham's Steakhouse with his fiancee for the couple's engagement party.A 38-year-old man who was also in the car was killed, too. Scarpino's fiancee and another passenger were not injured.
The cocaine conviction was later stayed and Scarpino was released.
In 1993, Scarpino shot and killed a man in a Los Angeles restaurant but charges were never laid because Scarpino was acting as a bounty hunter and investigators couldn't refute his claim that he shot in self defence.
Chief Jim Chu held a previously planned news conference Monday to announce his department's strategic plan to cut violence and property crime in an effort to make Vancouver one of the safest major cities in Canada.
But he was inundated with questions about the weekend shooting outside a popular high-end steak house in which two men were murdered in their SUV while one's fiancee sat in the passenger seat.
Chu admitted the kind of gangland violence that spasmed again Saturday after a spate of similar killings last fall is tough to get a handle on.
"It is more difficult when you talk about targeted events and very often it's the victim who's living that lifestyle that is the biggest determinant whether they're going to be a victim of a shooting," Chu said.
He said it depends on "who you've crossed or double-crossed, or who you've engaged in violence with and this is a retaliatory hit."
Const. Tim Fanning, the police department's spokesman, said the public was at great risk following the shooting around 10 p.m. Saturday, not long after the Vancouver Canucks hockey game ended just blocks away..
"Flying bullets, and we've seen it in the past, stray bullets have hit and killed innocent people," said Fanning. "(It's) obviously a very, very concerning event for everybody that was in that area."
Fanning said police will be getting dozens of videotapes from surrounding businesses and 200 people have already been interviewed.
Fanning agreed with Chu, saying that stopping a targeted attack is "very difficult."
He said police are out in the city's downtown core on the weekends, and that includes officers from the integrated gang task force.
"We're well aware of the problems and we're doing as much as we can, appreciating we can't be out on every street corner, not yet," said Fanning. "This isn't New York."
Last November, Chu announced the formation of another gang task force, consisting of 60 officers from various agencies.
It was in response to the killings of four men in different events in one week - two at a busy intersection, one in front of his home, and the other in a restaurant.
In October, the mass killing of six men in a suburban Surrey, B.C., apartment sparked outrage because two of the victims were innocent bystanders.
But Chu noted Monday that violent crime in Vancouver is very, very low "unless you're a gang member and live a risky lifestyle."
What really affects people is property crime, he said.
"If you live in the city and talk to friends and neighbours, quite often you know somebody who's been a victim of property crime," the chief said. "You walk on downtown streets and you can see window glass from cars.
"That's not an infrequent sight in this city. So we want to reduce that and one of the areas we're doing it in is focusing on chronic offenders."
Chu noted the decision by the Vancouver force to start sending back people who have outstanding warrants in other provinces, even if the other jurisdictions won't pay for the trip.
The police department's strategic plan calls for the force to dramatically reduce property crime.
Chu said the force will act to reduce property crime by 20 per cent over five years.
The plan notes much of the property stolen in Vancouver is converted into cash to buy drugs.
In 2005, property crime cost citizens and business of Vancouver close to $125 million.
The report notes that In 2004, the department set a goal for a 20 per cent reduction in property crime within five years. By the end of 2006, the department had reached a 16.2 per cent reduction.
But the report also noted there's a long way to go before property crime rates in Vancouver are among the average of other major Canadian cities.
"Using the average crime rate derived from the eight largest cities (population over 500,000) as a target, Vancouver requires a further 64 per cent reduction in reported property crime," the report says.
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