A man arrested in the car chase following a 2016 drive-by shooting in Nanaimo has been found guilty of a majority of the charges against him.
After a March 1, 2016 drive-by shooting in the Wakesiah Avenue-Jingle Pot Road area, Armaan Singh Chandi and Inderpal Singh Aujla were arrested in Duncan following a multi-jurisdictional car chase that began on Cedar Road and went through Ladysmith. RCMP vehicles were damaged and police officers were injured.
Chandi saw five charges brought against him and his B.C. Supreme Court trial began Jan. 14. This past Monday, Judge Robin Baird found him guilty of use of prohibited firearm with intention of committing murder, concealing his face with intention of committing an indictable offence, dangerous driving and failing to stop for a peace officer, according to Daniel McLaughlin, spokesman for B.C. Crown counsel. Chandi was found not guilty of reckless discharge of a firearm.
According to Crown evidence during the trial, Motaz Al-harbi, the man who was shot at, was not the intended target. Al-harbi testified that he saw a car passing with a man with a gun in the front passenger’s side shooting. The shooter’s face was covered, Al-harbi testified.
Richard Fowler, Chandi’s legal counsel, argued that gloves that were found had Aujla’s DNA, not Chandi’s. Also, it was not the only reasonable inference that Chandi was a party to an attempted murder with Aujla and it hadn’t been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they were engaged in a joint venture “for any common unlawful purpose.”
Prior to the trial, Aujla pleaded guilty in B.C. provincial court to charges of use of a restricted firearm for attempted murder and failing to stop for a peace officer. Judge Ted Gouge sentenced him to seven years in jail on Feb. 7.
A date for Chandi’s sentencing will be fixed on Feb. 25.
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