Another gangsta bites the dust.
A man known to police was gunned down in the back of a taxi Tuesday in a brazen Surrey shooting that left the cab driver seriously injured.
David Chavez-Jara, who has a lengthy criminal history, was targeted as the taxi sat in the parking lot of Church’s Chicken in the 14800-block of 108th Avenue about 2:20 p.m. On August 9, 2022
Surrey RCMP Cpl. Vanessa Munn said “both occupants of the vehicle had been shot.”
“The driver of the taxi was transported to hospital with serious injuries,” she said, adding that the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team had been called in.
“This daytime shooting in a strip-mall parking lot demonstrated a complete disregard for the safety of others and resulted in serious injuries to a taxi driver,” Munn said.
The 30-year-old Chavez-Jara is thought to be a part of the street level drug trade. He had active court proceedings at the time of the shooting on three trafficking allegations from 2020 as well as two driving infractions from Surrey and Vancouver. His criminal history began in 2010. On the drug charges, he was scheduled to stand trial in October.
Tequel Willis, 14, a Brothers Keepers associate, was shot dead in Surrey on December 28, 2020 after stepping out of a cab. And James Edward O’Toole was shot to death in the back of a taxi on Commercial Drive in a targeted murder.
A teenager with ties to the Brothers Keepers gang was shot and killed on the Trans-Canada Highway in Burnaby just three days prior to the most recent homicide. In the shooting at 2:29 PM on Saturday near the Kensington overpass, a second man also sustained injuries.
Two hours after the incident, a black Mercedes-Benz SUV was discovered on fire in Burnaby’s 1100 block of Eastlawn Drive.
Meysam Zaki, 18, was the deceased adolescent, according to IHIT. The name of the hurt man was kept a secret by the investigators.
A shooting in the South Surrey Athletic Park’s parking lot left two young men dead and another badly injured just one week earlier, on July 30. IHIT reported on August 5 that a suspect had been detained in connection with the killings, which were said to have “a nexus to gang and narcotics activity,” but had not yet been charged.
