Edmonton 21st homicide victim was well-known member of Edmonton’s Chinese community

EDMONTON – The suspicious death late Sunday night in the Crestwood neighbourhood, where a man was shot dead in the driveway of his west-end home, is now officially a homicide.

Police confirmed that Tuesday afternoon, as well as the fact that the victim is 50 year-old Chi-Lik Wong. Family and friends say Wong was the owner of the Dynasty Century Palace restaurant at 97th Street and 105th Avenue.

The homicide victim is being remembered as a generous business owner whose restaurant was a gathering place for the city’s Chinese community.

“He was well-known in the Chinese community because the restaurant always holds big functions, like weddings or big community celebrations,” said Ratan Lawrence, executive director of the Chinatown Business Association. “He was a very active member.”

Neighbours in the Crestwood community phoned police following the sound of gunshots shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday, and Wong was found shot in front of his home at 145th Street and 97th Avenue. Police said a suspect in a black van was seen speeding away afterward.

On Monday morning, Lawrence stopped by the Pacific Rim Mall in Chinatown, where Wong’s restaurant is located, and saw several stunned friends and patrons standing outside. The eatery hosted a seniors dim sum special that was popular among elders in the community, she said.

“He was such nice person. You’d walk into the restaurant, he knows you by your first name. He’d stop and have a chat with you,” she recalled. “He had a very special touch.”

The business association held its annual general meetings at the restaurant, which can hold more than 400 people, Lawrence said, and the association could count on his support whenever they were in need.

“He’d always sponsor us and was more than willing to give us whatever we asked for. He was a strong member for the community. We’re still trying to take the time to digest the news.”

An autopsy conducted Tuesday morning revealed that Wong died from a gunshot wound.

His death is Edmonton’s 21st of the year and the third in less than a week.

The death is also the latest in a series of recent shootings in public places.

On the afternoon of Aug. 13, 33-year-old Dale Maloney was gunned down and killed in front of onlookers in the alley behind the Joey on Jasper restaurant near 113th Street. Computer repairman Bogdan Pamfil, 25, was found shot to death Sept. 4 in the mechanical room of his condo building at Whyte Avenue and 97th Street. Later the same night, a man and woman in their 20s were shot and wounded while they sat in a car in the parking lot of a Boston Pizza restaurant at 33rd Street and 118th Avenue.
 

More to come… 

With files from Global Edmonton