Alleged Bolsa gunman admitted shooting to undercover cop

Article originally appeared in: Calgary Sun

The third man to stand trial in Calgary’s New Year’s Day massacre confessed to a purported crime boss to being one of the gunmen, jurors were told Monday.

But the criminal organization head to whom [The Accused] confessed was in fact an undercover cop, Crown prosecutor Susan Karpa said.

Karpa told a four-woman, eight-man Court of Queen’s Bench jury that [The Accused] was part of a group called the 403 Soldiers, which had aligned itself with the FOB gang in its ongoing battle with the FK.

And she said [The Accused] was one of two gunmen who entered the Bolsa restaurant off Macleod Tr. S. and opened fire on FK member Sanjeev Mann and his associate, Aaron Bendle.

As [The Accused] and a second gunman were killing the two victims inside, patron Keni Su’a fled the shooting, only to be slain in the parking lot outside, mistaken for Mann, Karpa said.

[The Accused] faces three charges of first-degree murder in connection with the Jan. 1, 2009 killings.

Karpa said the mid-afternoon attack was a well-orchestrated “execution” of Mann, which culminated in the death of Su’a — an innocent bystander believed mistaken for the main target.

She said Su’a had gone to the restaurant he had frequented in the past, but instead of a quiet meal, vainly fled as gunfire erupted.

“Mr. Su’a was shot and killed as he ran for his life from the restaurant,” Karpa told jurors.

“Little did Mr. Su’a know, he was caught in the middle of a planned execution.”

The attack on Mann and his associate, was part of an orchestrated plan which [The Accused] both helped plot and carry out, the prosecutor said.

“Mr. Mann was associated to a group called the FK,” Karpa said.

“The plan to kill Mr. Mann was hatched by members of rival groups called the FOB and the 403 soldiers.”

Bendle was kidnapped the night before and then used to set up a meeting in the restaurant with the unsuspecting Mann, she said.

Soon after the killing, [The Accused] made a new friend, Rey, a member of a criminal organization who later introduced the accused to his boss, Karpa said.

“The accused admitted to being one of the masked gunmen inside the restaurant,” she said.

“What the accused did not know was that Rey and the crime boss were police officers.”

[The Accused]’s trial is set to last five weeks.