Life Sentence for Gastown Shooter

Posted by Jeff
Filed in City
July 27, 2006

Well I guess you could say that we got what we wanted... drug dealer/thug/coward Imran Sharif was convicted of first-degree murder yesterday in the shooting deaths of Rachel Davis and Richard Hui. An automatic life sentence with no chance of parole until 2029.

Most of you know the story, I'm sure, but in short... at around 4am on January 3rd, 2003, Altaf Hussain, one of Sharif's young minions, was involved in some kind of dispute which resulted in him getting rat-packed by Hui and his associates on the sidewalk in front of the Purple Onion. Rachel, who was walking down the street with a few friends at the time and didn't like the sight of this guy getting his ass kicked, tried to break up the fight by jumping on top of Hussain and shielding him with her own body. This is about the time that Hussain's boss, Imran Sharif, started jerking off with his gun. In the end, Rachel and Hui were both dead from gunshot wounds to the head and five others were also shot, including two of Rachel's friends and Hussain, who was hit in the shoulder. Sharif managed to dodge capture for several months and his trial began last month.

So that's that for now, an automatic life sentence for Sharif with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. If you've ever heard me go off on a tangent about the justice system you might expect me to be gloating right now... and I sort of expected it myself. But while I do think that it was important for the crown to hand down such a stiff sentence, now that it's done the story is sad on so many levels that all I can muster is a half-hearted, "well at least the guy's not on the street anymore..."

Photo courtesy of SqueakyMarmot

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He killed 2 so he should get two consecutive life sentences. In Canada those convicted and given life are permitted a parole review at 25 years, but if he was given 2 life sentences parole review should be granted at 50 years.

50 years before we would ever have to think about him again.

Posted by: MK at July 27, 2006 2:53 PM | Quote Comment

Well your tax dollars will be thinking of him every day for the next 25 years, that's for sure. i have mixed feelings about stiff sentences. Do they actually accomplish repentence? Do they actually rehabilitate? Do they actually prevent more shootings? The evidence for any yesses are dodgy, to say the least.

Posted by: statusq at July 27, 2006 3:32 PM | Quote Comment

I knew Rachel. I went to school with her sister. I am glad my tax paying dollars put him in Jail for a long time. I only wish it was longer. I hope they put programs to prevent these things from happening in the 1st place but that is a separate issue. This guy obviously had a lot of problems. Maybe they could have been prevented but they were not. Rehabilitate.... Screw him! Will he repent, who cares. He took peoples lives.

Posted by: sarah at July 27, 2006 5:37 PM | Quote Comment

Yeah, I agree with statusq's view in large part... incarceration is not an effective or fitting punishment for most crimes (going to jail for stealing a car or selling drugs?) and if you look at the stats, it hardly seems to serve as much of a deterrent either. But there are people who clearly have no place in society and I'm happy enough to sacrifice some of my tax dollars to put people like Imran Sharif away. It is a massive expense though. Maybe we could take a closer look at Joe Arpaio's Tent City jail in Maricopa County, Arizona. That Canada Line project could use some even cheaper labour, right?

Posted by: Jeff

at July 27, 2006 10:33 PM | Quote Comment

I don't have a problem with this guy sitting in a jail cell for 25 years.

Might get the point across that using a gun to make yourself a big man and gunning down bystanders is an incredibly stupid thing to do.

I don't get the impression that he could be rehabilitated, as it seems, from what I read, that they were going to some lengths to cover their own ass and make excuses and manipulate witnesses. I don't get the impression the shooter cared that he killed 2 people, innocent bystanders at that. Good riddance.

I was worried they'd give him a relatively useless token sentence. Some criminals can be rehabbed, but I'm not inclined to think this bozo would be one of them.

Posted by: nico at July 28, 2006 1:00 AM | Quote Comment

Or like the prisons in Ecuador where your fammily supports you with food money etc. or you rot.

Posted by: sarah at July 28, 2006 9:39 AM | Quote Comment