New Year's Day shooting killed innocent man
CALGARY — A simple decision about where to eat may have cost an innocent man his life in a gang shooting on New Year’s Day.
Keni Su’a, 43, was dining alone at the Bolsa Restaurant in Calgary last Thursday when two men came in and opened fire on three people at another table.
Su’a’s friend, Shree Naidoo Raikatalau, said he often ate with Su’a at their favourite Vietnamese restaurant, but it was closed for the holiday.
“Keni loved his Vietnamese soup and decided to start off 2009 with one of his favourite things,” Raikatalau said.
The decision to opt for the Bolsa Restaurant proved to be fatal.
Police say the gunmen were targeting known gang member Sanjeev Mann, 22, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, and his associate Aaron Bendle, 21. The two were eating with a woman when they were fatally shot.
Su’a fled the restaurant when gunfire erupted, but was confronted in the parking lot by a third man, as well as by the two gunmen who’d been inside.
Police say Su’a was an innocent victim simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Su’a’s former wife, Lenni Su’a, said her ex-husband moved to Kelowna, B.C., 15 years ago from the Samoan capital of Apia to work with the global Christian organization Youth With a Mission.
His friends and family can’t believe he died at the hands of feuding gang members, she said.
“It just seems so senseless. What is our society coming to?”
Su’a’s family of seven siblings and elderly parents — all in Samoa — are stunned by his death, she said.
“They’re very devastated.”
Lenni, also a former missionary, said Su’a would have felt compassion for those involved in the deadly dispute.
“He had a lot of compassion for people. He was pretty selfless.”
Police Chief Rick Hanson said police will turn up the heat on families of gang members as one tool of targeting organized crime in the city.
“We have good information that parents of some of these gang members are benefiting ... from trafficking of drugs, sales of drugs and other crimes associated to that.”
“If we can trace (the profits) back to families, to parents, restaurants and homes, we’re going to go after them with that existing legislation,” he said.
Police have also approached the Crown to see if they can do more frequent checks on gang members and conduct random stops and vehicle checks of known gang members, Hanson said.
Gangs were also suspected in a shooting Tuesday night that left one man in hospital.
Police said two men had reportedly gotten out of a vehicle and were walking toward a home when an unknown suspect or suspects fired in their direction.
The man who was hit was listed in stable condition. The second man had gotten back into the vehicle and attempted to drive away, but got stuck in a snow bank.
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