Rogue Hells Angel gunned down in Vancouver

OFF THE WIRE- CANANDA
By Staff Reporter, The Province August 12, 2010 4:51 PM

Juel Ross Stanton — a rogue member of the Hells Angels who had a scheduled court date Thursday — is dead after being hit this morning with a rapid-fire burst of bullets outside his gated home near Vancouver’s city hall.

Vancouver police have confirmed that 41-year-old Stanton was killed in a “targeted shooting” at about 6:15 a.m.

This morning, police detectives were still examining his prone body. It was laying beside the large red house that some neighbours have dubbed the “House of Doom,” given repeated disturbance complaints.

The home at 11th Avenue and Columbia Street has a 12-step concrete front entrance, surrounded by brick columns and a black wrought-iron gate mounted with gargoyles.

Police say Stanton had been on their radar for “quite a while,” most recently in April when he was arrested after several violent altercations at the Ivanhoe Pub in Vancouver.

“We do know he was a Hells Angel member, but it’s our understanding he was expelled from the club this year,” said Const. Jana McGuinness, who added that it’s too early to speculate about whether the killing will set off a gang war in the coming days.

Travis Dudfield, who lives just down the street from the house, said he was woken this morning by the sound of about 10 shots in rapid succession.

“I knew right away it was gunshots,” Dudfield said. “I’ve lived in New York and I’ve heard gunshots before.”

A woman who did not want her name published said she was making coffee at 6:10 a.m. when she heard a large burst of shots outside her Mount Pleasant home.

“It wasn’t just a couple of shots — it sounded like a lot of rounds. It just sounded like it was going, going, going,” said the woman, who lives across the alley from the house.

She said a number of people were gathered around Stanton.

“There was one woman, I think she was the first out, she was just screaming,” the neighbour said. “There were people trying to stop the bleeding, then one guy said, ‘Forget it, he’s dead.’

“He just said it like . . . It seemed unemotional.”

Stanton was due to appear in court Thursday for arraignment on assault and weapons charges. After his April arrest, anti-gang squad officers described Stanton as a rogue member of the Angels’ East End chapter who had become so difficult to control that police called a meeting with the chapter president in an effort to rein him in.

It was a highly unusual police tactic, spurred by “unprecedented” actions on the part of Stanton, VPD Insp. Brad Desmarais said in an April 12 press release.

Sgt. Shinder Kirk of the Integrated Gang Task Force said he’s not sure why Stanton was expelled by the chapter, but the Desmarais press release “may have played a large part in it.”

A court order forbid Stanton from associating with “any Hells Angels Club members or their associated club members, except for Dillon Stanton.”

Julian Sher, an international expert on biker gangs and author of “The Road to Hell: How the Biker Gangs are Conquering Canada” called Stanton an “enforcer thug” who “lived with blood and died with blood.”

“On the scale of Hells Angels, he was the king of thugs,” Sher told The Province in an interview. “He was always one of the most violent in the H.A.”

Sher said he can’t speculate on who might have killed Stanton.

“The Hells Angels have been known to clean up their own garbage, but they’ve also been known to take care of expelled members,” he said.

Sher said citizens shouldn’t assume a gang war will follow the Stanton killing, but he also said the Hells Angels could be positioned to assert authority over some of the up and coming gangs in B.C., which have been aggressive in the past few years.

scooper@theprovince.com

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