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Bacon trial: Out of control gang war

Trial into the 2011 murder of B.C. gangster Jonathan Bacon continues in Kelowna
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Increased security at the Kelowna courthouse as the Jonathan Bacon trial continues. - Image credit: Kathy Michaels

One of the men charged with the 2011 murder of B.C. gangster Jonathan Bacon lamented the violent path he chose in the days after a shooting that killed one of his friends.

“What a life … what a f@#&*ing life,” JuJhar Khun-Khun said to Almira Singh, the wife of Manny Hairan, in a phone-call made Jan. 18, 2013.

Khun-Khun had been severely injured and Hairan was killed in the Surrey shooting that took place just three days prior to the call intercepted by police and played for the court in Kelowna Tuesday.

Related: Three arrests made in killing of Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna

Khun-Khun is comforted by Singh, told that he will be OK, and everything happens for a reason.

“What’s the reason for him dying? What the F&*&?” Khun-Khun said, in response, adding later that “everybody is dead.”

“I can’t believe they took my Manny…”

Hairan, the court learned was happy, expecting a child and “not as intense” as he had previously been.

That happiness came to an end in a residential area near the Patullo bridge and Khun-Khun recalled his final moments for Singh.

“I was looking out at Manny, and then ‘bang’ his eyes were closed when he was looking at me,” Khun-Khun said. “I said, ‘No.’”

At that point he mustered the energy to run to another car and get away.

“It hurt so much,” said Khun-Khun, who was shot and needed four surgeries in the days after the incident. He still suffers complications from the shooting.

“I was like, ‘get up, you’re not supposed to die, get up’… I ran to my (truck) got in and I did 180 km /hr. I got up to 220 km/hr, I swear.”

He told Singh he remembered swerving in front of a semi and driving to the Emergency Room entrance.

“I crawled out and … I said ‘I’m shot’ and they came running,” he said. “I’m sad. I’m so sad that he’s dead. He meant the most to me of everyone who died. .. what a life, what a f^&*ing life.”

By this point in Khun-Khun’s life most of his friends had been killed.

It started with the murder of Gurmit Dhak. Obsessed with revenge, his younger brother Sukh Dhak planned the murder of Larry Amero and James Riach, who were with Bacon when he was killed, Crown counsel Dave Ruse told the court in opening statements.

Sukh Dhak was killed in the years that followed, as was Hairan, and several others associated with the Dhak Group.

At the time of Hairan’s murder, police had estimated that the gang war had been the cause of at least 20 shootings.

The murder resonated through the community of alleged gangsters.

Related: 2011 killing motivated by revenge

In another call intercepted on the same day in 2013 Jason McBride spoke to a friend in prison, identified to the court only as MP.

MP, who spoke with a heavy accent, talked about his frustration with another party who hadn’t been supportive.

“F*%$ this guy … I spoiled him, too much,” said MP. “He’s a useless mother f&*&.”

McBride tells him he understands his frustration, but there are two sides to a story.

MP then says he wants to see the problem “cut off” from “you-know-who.”

At that point McBride raises his voice and cautions MP to not talk about things “that people don’t need to know about,” presumably referencing the fact that calls are monitored.

He also says he feels bad for Hairan.

“S*&$ happens — I don’t know … what the hell are you doing out at 2 a.m.?” said McBride.

Bacon, Amero and Riach were in the shot up Porsche Cayenne August 2011, along with Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black. Bacon was the only one who died. Amero was shot in the face, wrist and chest, Hadden-Watts was shot in the neck and rendered a paraplegic, Black was shot through both upper legs. Riach escaped without injury.

Related: ‘My first thought was, they’re making a movie’

Khun-Khun, McBride and Michael Jones are charged with murder and attempted murder.


@KelownaNewsKat
kmichaels@kelownacapnews.com

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