A trial date has been set for the three men accused of the murder of former Red Scorpions gang leader Jonathan Bacon and the attempted murder of four others.
Jujhar Khun-Khun of Surrey, Michael Kerry Hunter Jones of Gibsons and Jason Thomas McBride of North Vancouver appeared in court in Kelowna and Monday, when the date for their jury trial was scheduled for April 4, 2016.
The three are each charged with one count of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder, and three counts of discharging a firearm with intent.
The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit announced in February 2013 that the three had been arrested following an 18-month investigation that was dubbed E-Nitrogen.
Bacon, 30, of Abbotsford was in a Porsche Cayenne SUV with four other people when they were shot at on Aug. 14, 2011 outside the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort in Kelowna.
The shooting killed Bacon and wounded Hells Angel Larry Amero, Independent Soldier James Riach, Lyndsey Black and Leah Hadden-Watts, who was left paralyzed.
At the time, police said the “cascade of violence,” which continued after the Kelowna shooting, began with the fatal shooting of gangster Gurmit Dhak in October 2010 in a parking lot at Burnaby’s Metrotown Shopping Centre.
Last week, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) released figures showing that the number of murders related to organized crime has dropped 20 per cent from 2013 to 2014.
Forty-one per cent of their investigations were related to organized crime in the period from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 2013, according to IHIT.
The agency stated that the figure has dropped to 21 per cent for the same period this year.
IHIT has conducted 43 investigations from Jan. 1 to Oct. 3 of this year.
