On the anti-gang beat in British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada -- a clean metropolis of high-rises, waterways and snowy peaks that will host the 2010 Winter Olympics -- has become caught in the grip of a grisly drug-related gang war responsible for several homicides in British Columbia. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
In Abbotsford, Canada, Cpl. A.C.J. Coons on an anti-gang patrol scans the parking lot of a restaurant/bar for gang members or their cars. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Members of a gang task force detain several individuals outside a club in suburban Vancouver. Project Rebellion is a cooperative program with club owners and police to remove gangsters or gang-member wannabes under a public safety provision called “Criminal Trespass.” Just being in public is a crime for identified gang members. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Vancouver police handcuff a patron outside a club in the city’s Gastown district. The anti-gang team raced to the scene when a bouncer called to report a different man, a suspected gang member who challenged the bouncer when he wouldn’t let the man in the club. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
In a suburban Vancouver bar and dance club, an anti-gang task force officer identifies a man in gangster-style baseball cap, earrings and various body piercings. He was dismissed as a drug gang-member wannabe. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Lisa Byrne inspects an AK-47 assault rifle with sawed-off stock at the Vancouver police headquarters. Rifles, pistols and ammunition were recently confiscated from the Sanghera crime group in Vancouver during Project Rebellion, a continuing operation to rid the city of drug gangs before the 2010 Winter Olympics. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
At her home computer in Abbotsford, Canada, 17-year-old Mathea Angelica Sturm mourns two high school classmates who were shot to death recently. She has created a Facebook page titled “Too Many Teen Deaths” that lists the dozens of young people killed in Abbotsford and Chilliwack. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
In Vancouver, Michael Barber looks at a photo of his late son Jonathan. His 24-year-old was about to install an audio system in a car owned by one of the Bacon brothers, who are known as gangsters, in the suburban Vancouver town of Abbotsford. A gunman opened fire on Jonathan and killed him. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
In a Chilliwack, Canada, cemetery, snapshots of Zachary Hobek adorn his grave site. The 17-year-old was shot to death in this Vancouver suburb in August 2008. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
The owner of the Yellow Barn Country Produce holds a painted rock left by friends of 19-year-old Ryan Richards, whose body was found behind the produce store in eastern Abbotsford, Canada. Stab wounds on the teen’s hands were severe, indicating he put up a furious fight for his life. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
A pedestrian reads a card left at a makeshift memorial on Bateman Road in Abbotsford, Canada. This is where police found the body of 21-year-old Sean Murphy in his car, dead from a blast of gunfire. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
In Abbotsford, Canada, a stainless steel post in a field marks the unfenced borderline between Canada and the United States. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
