The Surrey Six massacre was a gang-related massacre that occurred in Surrey, British Columbia on 19 October 2007. The victims included drug dealer Corey Lal and his associates, along with two innocent bystanders, Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg, who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The killers, members of the Red Scorpions gang, shot all six men in the head.
The Lal crew The so-called Lal crew were a small gang based in Unit 1505 in the Balmoral Tower condo in Surrey. The Lal crew consisted of the 22-year old Edward "Eddie" Narong, one of the founders of the Red Scorpions who had broken away to found his own gang; the 26-year old Michael Justin Lal and his younger brother, 22-year old Corey Jason Lal; and the 19-year old Ryan Bartolomeo. All four had criminal records.
The one with the most serious criminal record was Narong who had been involved in a killing. The Thai-Canadian Edward "Eddie" Sousakhone Narong and the Vietnamese-Canadian Quang Vinh Thang "Michael" Le, both of whom lived in Coquitlam, had beaten to death a Korean-Canadian, Richard Jung, who was bullying them. Jung had been attacked and beaten to death in the men's washroom of the Hi-Max karaoke club in Coquitlam. Narong and Le had founded the Red Scorpions gang while serving their sentences at the Willingdon Youth Detention Center. Le had been convicted of second degree murder, but had his sentence reduced down to manslaughter on appeal while Narong had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a plea bargain. Both Le and Narong had served their 18 month sentences at the Willingdon Youth Detention Center, where they established the Red Scorpions gang.
Between his release from the Willingdon Youth Detention Centre in October 2003 and his murder in October 2007, Narong had been charged 30 different times, mostly related to drug trafficking and weapons charges. Narong had been able to have most of the charges stayed for one reason or another, but was due in court to face charges of assaulting a police officer after he attacked a policeman in May 2007. In 2007, Narong had a dispute with Le and the Bacon brothers who joined the Red Scorpions in late 2006, and broke away from the Red Scorpions to form a new gang. Both of the Indo-Canadian Lal brothers were career drug dealers who had been members of the Independent Soldiers. Michael Lal had been convicted of drug trafficking in 2006 and Corey Lal was facing charges of drug trafficking following his arrest earlier in 2007. The Lal brothers resented the way that the Hells Angels had violently taken control of the Independent Soldiers and broke away to join forces with Narong. Both of the Lal brothers had been friends with Mahmoud Alkhalil who had been killed in a shootout with the Hells Angels on 16 August 2003, and decided to leave the Independent Soldiers after the Hells Angels had taken control. The Italian-Canadian Bartolomeo had been arrested in December 2006 and was due in court soon to face four counts of drug possession with the intention to traffic along with two counts relating to weapons charges. Bartolomeo's cousin, Damian Bartolomeo, with whom he was close, was an associate of the Hells Angel Juel Stanton, and had been convicted in 2002 for leading a violent home invasion of a marijuana grow-op. Unit 1505 was a condo owned by the real estate agent Ceasar Tiojanco who had rented it out to Raphael Baldini of the Red Scorpions who had in turn had sub-let the unit to the Lal crew. Baldini had sublet the unit out before Narong had left the Red Scorpions. The Lal crew had been in a dispute with Jamie Bacon of the Red Scorpions about how much "tax" they owed him for the right to sell drugs in Surrey.
Two of the victims were innocent of any crime. The 55-year old Ed Schellenberg was a committed Mennonite from Coaldale who had done missionary work in the United States, Poland and the Northwest Territories. The journalist Jerry Langton wrote: "He stood just five foot eight. He was bald and stout and did not carry himself like a tough guy. Because he wasn't. No, he was a charmer. His oversized red handlebar moustache, ready smile, twinkling eyes and quick wit had always been enough to get him out of trouble in the past". Schellenbeg was described as a hardworking repair/maintenance man for gas fireplaces who was honest and reliable.The 22-year old Chris Mohan was the son of Indo-Fijian immigrants who had no involvement in crime, and was devoted to working out in the gym and to his girlfriend. Mohan was described as friendly, funny and outgoing by those who knew him. On 19 October 2007, Mohan who lived opposite Unit 1505 was going out to play basketball. His mother, Eileen Mohan, stated she knew only Baldini and did not know the people to whom he sublet unit 1505, nor did her son.
The massacre In August 2007, Jamie Bacon met with Corey Lal to demand that he pay him a $100,000 "tax" in exchange for the right to sell drugs in Surrey. At a meeting in a McDonald's in Surrey, Bacon told Lal he would be killed if he continued to refuse him the "tax" he wanted. Justice Kathleen Ker stated in 2020 that Bacon wanted Lal killed because of his ego, saying: "he didn't want to look weak. In their world, Corey Lal had to die". Ker stated that Jamie was the leader of the "diabolical plot" to have Lal killed.
On the afternoon of 19 October 2007, Schellenberg along with several other gasfitters were checking the gas fireplaces in all of the units in the Balmoral Tower for any possible flaws as part of an annual inspection, a requirement imposed by the condo corporation. Several gasfitters did not want to go into Unit 1505 whose tenants were considered disreputable and Schellenberg volunteered to do a job that no-one else wanted to do. At about 2:40 pm, Schellenberg was inspecting the gas fireplace in Unit 1505. A drug dealer, Sophon Sek, led the killers to Unit 1505 and knocked on the door of Unit 1505, which allowed the killers to enter the unit. Sek had been paid $25,000 to lead the killers to unit 1505 and helped them gain access. A group of Red Scorpions that consisted of Matthew James Johnston, Cody Rae Haevischer, and Denis Karbovanec rushed into Unit 1505 with their guns drawn. Mohan happened to see the killers in the hallway as he was going out of his unit to play basketball with his friends and was dragged into unit 1505 at gunpoint. All six men were forced to face the floor with their heads covered and were shot. In a statement to the police before his murder in 2009, the Red Scorpion gangster Kevin LeClair said: "I was told they rushed in, got everybody on the ground. I was told two different stories. But that Corey was like really upset and crying, like begging for his life, saying he’ll do anything". LeClair also said that he heard that Narong was defiant as he was reported to have said “fuck you, you’re fucking dead” before he was shot in the head.
Of the victims, Mohan was shot twice, once in the head and another shot to his neck with the latter bullet severing his spinal cord. Schellenberg was shot twice in the head. Narong was shot twice with a bullet in his head and another in his neck that partially severed his spinal cord. Michael Lal was shot in his back twice with one of the bullets puncturing one of his lungs and the other his heart.. Corey Lal was shot twice in the head. Bartolomeo had been shot the most, taking six bullets with four gunshot wounds to his back and another two to his right hand.
At about 4 pm, the building manager of the Balmoral Tower noticed that Schellenberg's truck was still in the parking lot. The manager went to the top floor, where he noticed the doors to units 1504 and 1505 were open. Inside of unit 1505 he noticed Schellenberg's corpse on the floor in a pool of blood. Fearing a gas leak, the manager pulled the alarm, which forced all of the tenants to go outside. The Surrey fire department discovered all six corpses in a blood-drenched floor in unit 1505, which led to the police being called. The city of Surrey had no police department, and the policing duties were provided by a 640-strong detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Superintendent Wayne Rideout received a call saying that six bodies had been found at the Balmoral Tower. Rideout later stated: "We had never had anything like this". Lois Schellenberg grew increasing anxious as her husband failed to answer his cell phone while Chris's Mohan's mother, Eileen Mohan, was likewise distraught when her son did not return her calls.
Reaction
The massacre received a massive amount of media coverage and generated much shock and horror, all the more because two of the victims were innocent by-standers who were shot down in cold blood merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The massacre made the Bacon brothers infamous in British Columbia as the Lal Crew was "essentially exterminated", which showed how dangerous the competition for the control of the drug trade in the Lower Mainland had become. The massacre improved the underworld reputation of the Red Scorpions.
Eileen Mohan, the mother of Chris Mohan, became a powerful spokeswomen for justice for her family as she spoke often on television, radio and in public rallies demanding that police bring the killers to justice. The Hells Angel Ron Lising had been videotaped beating a man in 2005, but at his trial in November 2007, the judge gave him a $600 fine for assault. Mohan spoke about the Lising trial, which she used as an example of the weak responses of the authorities to the gangsters in the Lower Mainland who rarely went to prison for their crimes. On 3 February 2008 at a rally in the Bear Creek Park in Surrey, Mohan criticized the Crown for an inability to bring the killers to justice.
Investigation Sergeant Derek Brassington of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was assigned as the lead investigator for the Surrey Six massacre. A Mountie who was married to a fellow Mountie, described as a "cop's cop" and had served 14 years in the major crimes unit in Surrey, Brassington was widely considered to be the best detective in British Columbia. Langton wrote about the Surrey Six massacre: "The killers had more chutzpah and ego than they had any technical knowledge of how best to go about assassination. They left behind a huge mess of DNA and other evidence. But real investigations are not at all like the magic they show on TV and in movies. To build a compelling case from even the sloppiest murder scene takes lots of hours of hard work and no small amount of luck".
Evidence released after the convictions of the police detectives in charge of the Surrey Six case in 2019 showed that instead of pursuing the killers behind the Surrey Six massacre, the Mountie detectives in charge of the case spent a disproportionate amount of their time in drunken debauchery. The elite police team spent much of their time being intoxicated at various bars and strip clubs while making sexual advances on female witnesses, which nearly ruined the case against Jamie Bacon. Two of the officers convicted claimed that their job stress made them incapable of rational thinking and the riotous bacchanalian excess that the squad engaged in was a result of their stress-induced mindlessness. Brassington's superior, Inspector David Attew of the RCMP, tried very hard to seduce the girlfriend of one of the witnesses for the Crown, which nearly caused the man to break off his agreement to testify against Jamie Bacon. The detectives in charge of the Surrey Six case all faced charges of fraud for billing the Crown for overtime pay while they were instead drinking in various bars and strip clubs.
Legal proceedings