Two men were found guilty of first-degree murder earlier this week in the 2009 shooting of 35-year-old Rajinder Soomel.
Shortly after 10:00 p.m. on September 29th, 2009, police were called to the area of Cambie Street near West 19th Avenue after residents called 9-1-1 and reported hearing what they believed to be gunshots.
Officers arrived and found a man, later identified as Soomel, lying dead in the middle of Cambie Street. It was the city’s 18th homicide of 2009.
Investigators with the VPD Homicide Unit believed from the onset that the attack was targeted, but later determined that Raj Soomel fell victim to a gang-related shooting that had gone wrong. Mr. Soomel was in fact not the intended victim, and the person believed to be the target that day was Randy Naicker, who would later be murdered on June 25th, 2012, in Port Moody.
On June 20th, 2014, 35-year-old Kevin Jones and 32-year-old Colin Stewart were arrested and charged with first degree murder.
After many months at trial, the jury came back with a guilty verdict for both men. They have been sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility of parole for 25 years.
