The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) has announced an arrest and charges in the murder of Matt Campbell last month at the Fraser Valley Automall.
Jimi Sandhu, 24, of Abbotsford has been charged with second-degree murder.
Sandhu was arrested yesterday in Vancouver and will appear Monday in Abbotsford provincial court.
Supt. Kevin Hackett, the officer in charge of IHIT, said the arrest came as the result of a “fast-paced investigation … (that) has continued around the clock for the past 30 days.”
He commended the Abbotsford Police Department for its assistance with the investigation and the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU) for its partnership with IHIT.
“Gang-related homicide investigations are difficult to resolve,” Hackett said.
Supt. Dan Malo, chief officer of CFSEU-BC, said CFSEU was fulfilling its role as B.C.’s integrated anti-gang police agency.
” … it is essential that CFSEU-BC collaborate with units like IHIT and our policing partners to not only ensure communities around the province are safe from gang-related violence but that when that violence does occur that we are there to assist,” he said.
Police were called to the auto mall on Jan. 2 after Campbell staggered into a business there at about 3:45 p.m. with severe neck wounds. Police later confirmed he had been stabbed.
Campbell, an Abbotsford resident, was a high-ranking member of the Red Scorpions gang. He was among 10 people charged in 2006 after police broke up a gun trafficking ring that sold handguns, rifles and machine guns to drug dealers across the country.
Sandhu also has a criminal history.
He was charged with weapon and assault offences after a person was shot in the wrist in Jauary 2009 following a dispute at a home on Newcastle Drive.
In January 2011, Sandhu was among four people charged with a home invasion and abduction that involved two men being abducted from Homestead Crescent and then driven to a home on McCallum Road.
There, the mother of one of the abducted men was taken from the home, and all three captives were later released on Highway 1 near Clearbrook Road.
Charges against all four were quickly stayed, due to not enough evidence to proceed.
