Retrial begins for man accused of killing teen bystander during B.C. gang shooting

More than seven years ago, innocent teenager Alfred Wong was killed during a gangland shooting in Vancouver.

For the second time, Crown prosecutors will attempt to convince a jury that it was Kane Carter who fired the shots that killed two people during an alleged gang shooting in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in 2018.

Carter, 29, is charged with the second-degree murders of 15-year-old Alfred Wong, an innocent bystander and 23-year-old Kevin Whiteside, an alleged gang member, and the aggravated assault of Shaiful Khondoker, another innocent bystander who was shot but survived.

Dressed in a navy blue suit and a black turtleneck, Carter pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

Carter stood trial for the offences last year, but it ultimately ended in a mistrial.

Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge told the jury they must not speculate as to why.

The incident happened on Jan. 13, 2018. Wong, a Coquitlam high school student, was in the back seat of his family’s car, when he was caught in the crossfire of a reckless gunfight on East Broadway near Ontario Street.

Wong was killed, as was Whiteside, a Vancouver resident who was known to police and believed to be “involved in gang life.” At first, police believed Whiteside was the target of the shooting, but later said he was the one who instigated the deadly violence.

Vancouver police said in 2019 Whiteside was in the area to kill 28-year-old Matthew Navas-Rivas, who was dining out at a restaurant.

When Navas-Rivas left the restaurant, Whiteside reportedly shot at him, and a second person, who the Crown believes was Carter, opened fire.

Navas-Rivas wasn’t injured but was killed in another shooting months later near an East Vancouver elementary school.

In the Crown’s opening address to the jury, prosecutor Don Montrichard said Wong was struck in the right side of his chest with a single bullet, and he underwent emergency surgery but died a few days later.

Carter has admitted that he flew from Hamilton, Ont., to Abbotsford, B.C., in October of 2017, and began renting a condo under his younger brother’s name in November of that year.

He also admits he flew back to Ontario on Jan. 20, 2018, one week after the fatal shootings.

Montrichard said much of the Crown’s case is circumstantial, relying heavily on video footage and cellphone records.

He says a burgundy Pontiac van, believed to be Carter’s getaway vehicle, will also be a focal point of Crown’s case.

Montrichard says investigators later found the van parked in the underground parkade of the Surrey condo building where Carter was renting a unit.

He says Carter’s DNA as well as three fired bullet cases were found inside.

Crown believes Carter and Navis-Rivas were connected through a drug dealing operating they were running out of downtown Vancouver.

Carter has admitted that a vehicle of that make and model was parked near the shooting scene on the night of Jan. 13.

Montrichard says the Crown will call around 40 witnesses, with the trial expected to run into November.