Surrey Six Massacre: Gang Violence Claims Six Lives

On October 19, 2007, six people were shot in the head in Surrey, British Columbia, in what came to be known as the Surrey Six massacre. It was a gang-related event, and the perpetrators were members of the Red Scorpions gang.

The victims included Corey Lal, a drug dealer, and some of his associates. There were also two innocent bystanders, Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg, who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Lal crew, as they were called, was a small gang operating out of Unit 1505 in the Balmoral Tower condo. This crew included 22-year-old Edward "Eddie" Narong, who was one of the founders of the Red Scorpions but had broken away to start his own gang. Also part of the crew were 26-year-old Michael Justin Lal and his younger brother, 22-year-old Corey Jason Lal, along with 19-year-old Ryan Bartolomeo. All four of them had criminal records.

Narong had the most serious criminal record, having been involved in a previous killing. He and Quang Vinh Thang "Michael" Le had beaten a Korean-Canadian named Richard Jung to death in a karaoke club washroom in Coquitlam. Narong and Le actually founded the Red Scorpions gang while they were serving time at the Willingdon Youth Detention Center for that incident. Le was convicted of second-degree murder, later reduced to manslaughter, and Narong pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a plea bargain. They both served 18 months.

After his release in October 2003, Narong faced 30 different charges, mostly for drug trafficking and weapons, before his murder in October 2007. He managed to get most of those charges stayed, but he was due in court for assaulting a police officer in May 2007. In 2007, Narong had a disagreement with Le and the Bacon brothers, who had joined the Red Scorpions in late 2006, and that's when he broke away to form his own gang.

The Lal brothers were career drug dealers who had been part of the Independent Soldiers. Michael Lal was convicted of drug trafficking in 2006, and Corey Lal was facing similar charges after an arrest earlier in 2007. They didn't like how the Hells Angels took control of the Independent Soldiers, so they left and teamed up with Narong. Both Lals had been friends with Mahmoud Alkhalil, who was killed in a shootout with the Hells Angels in 2003. Bartolomeo, the other member of the Lal crew, was arrested in December 2006 and was set to appear in court for drug possession with intent to traffic and weapons charges. His cousin, Damian Bartolomeo, was an associate of Hells Angel Juel Stanton and had a conviction in 2002.