VANCOUVER – A long-time member of the East End Hells Angels was gunned down about 6:15 a.m. Thursday outside his huge heritage home near Vancouver City Hall.
Forty-one year old Juel Ross Stanton was out on bail on weapons and assault charges at the time of his early morning execution in the 200-block of West 11th Avenue. He was due to be arraigned in Vancouver Provincial Court later Thursday morning.
Vancouver Police Const. Jana McGuinness said Stanton was well-known to police and had been kicked out of the East End chapter of the biker gang after his high-profile arrest this past spring. His son is also in the program to become a full-patch Hells Angel.
Police have no suspects and are appealing for witnesses to call 604-717-2500.
"When our members moved into the area they found a man lying deceased behind that residence," she said. "Officers did a search over the next hour of the whole area. They have not turned up any suspects at this point."
The large renovated heritgage house had several security cameras and McGuinness said police were hoping to secure the video from them.
"We have taken a number of people out of the residence down to the police station for interviews," McGuinness said. "We do know that he as a member of the Hells Angels, but it is our understanding that he was expelled from the club some time this year."
She said gangsters live through Metro Vancouver and no neighbourhood is immune.
"This is a very disturbing incident for this neighbourhood," she said.
"Our gang squad works closely with other jurisdictions, the Gang Task Force and CFSEU monitoring gang members around the Lower Mainland. So it is not uncommon for gang members to live in any neighbourhood"
Stunned neighbours said they heard up to 11 shots and saw a dark car with tinted windows racing from the scene, turning east on 12th at Columbia..
About 10 police cars and three ambulances are on scene, and authorities have taped off a two-block area around the home.
Stanton’s body could be scene in a red shirt and jeans close to the edge of his property on Columbia.
Stanton’s hysterial wife was heard yelling at police, witnesses say.
"My f***ing husband’s dead, and now you’re going through the drawers of my house," neighbours heard. "Do you think someone’s hiding in a pinhole?"
Most neighbours did not want to be quoted by name. Several have complained to the Vancouver Sun over the last two years of harassment and intimidation by Stanton and his HA friends who would show up at all hours.
McGuinness said Vancouver Police often had a car parked out in front of the house to alleviate the concerns of the neighbourhood.
But another neighbour said Stanton could also be really nice and helped her son when his bike broke down in front of the house.
"It was only a matter of time before something like this happened," she said.
Stanton was charged in April after several complaints of vicious assaults in Vancouver bars
Vancouver Police were so concerned about his behaviour and intimidation of patrons that the city’s gang squad visited East End Hell’s Angel president John Bryce to warn him Stanton was out of hand.
"We did tell him that Mr. Stanton’s behaviour was unacceptable on a number of different levels and as far as I can tell, they chose not to do anything about it," Insp. Brad Desmarais said at the time.
Stanton was ordered released on 21 strict bail conditions that prevented him from displaying any Hells Angel clothing, logo or even his biker tattoos publicly. Nor could he have Hells Angel images on his vehicles or properties (until then, he often displayed a banner of the HA deathhead from a window of his house.)
"These unprecedented conditions have effectively stripped this gang member of his identity and the one thing he relied on most to frighten and intimidate people," Desmarais said.
Stanton has also been banned from being in the company of other Hells Angels or associates, except for his own son Dillon, according to the conditions set by Judge Jocelyn Palmer.
The charges against Stanton related to incidents at the Ivanhoe pub on Main Street in March and April 2010.
"Mr. Stanton, who owns a construction company called Juel Forming, was also acquitted in 2003 in another alleged beating, robbery and extortion. The judge ruled the man claiming to be the victim was "a manipulative liar."
McGuinnness said police were going to do a search and canvass "for any disgarded evidence" throughout Thursday.
Major crime investigators were on the scene, as well as a forensics team, McGuinness said.
"They are doing a detailed analysis of the crime scene," she said.
"At that time of morning, 6:15, often people are out walking their dog or just heading to work so we are appealing to wtinesses who may have seen something or heard something to contact our major crime investigators."
Stanton’s slaying is the city’s seventh homicide in 2010.
"It is a serious crime that we are investigating," McGuinness said. "In the coming days we will know more about who was involved and who was responsible."
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