Man convicted in deadly shooting near Surrey, B.C., elementary school

Three years after a double-shooting in Surrey, B.C., that left a man dead and a woman seriously injured, the accused gunman has been convicted and sentenced.

Yusuf Kontos was initially charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with the Feb. 8, 2022, shooting, but was convicted on the lesser counts of manslaughter with a firearm and aggravated assault.

The Richmond Hill, Ont., resident was sentenced last week in B.C. Supreme Court, receiving 12 years for the first count and eight years for the second, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said.

“As the court proceedings come to an end, we wish for closure upon the victim families,” IHIT’s Sgt. Freda Fong said in a statement Thursday.

The victims — 24-year-old Juvraj Jabal and a 20-year-old woman — were found injured in a vehicle near 104 Avenue and 168 Street on the night of the shooting.

Investigators later learned the gunfire took place blocks away from that location, near Surrey’s Bothwell Elementary School.

Both victims were taken to hospital, where Jabal later succumbed to his injuries.

Kontos, a Richmond Hill resident who was 23 at the time of the killing, was eventually tracked down in Ontario, after IHIT worked “relentlessly” to identify the shooter, Fong said.

She credited the outcome of the case to a cross-jurisdictional effort involving police in both provinces.