The 37-year-old man killed in a Friday night shooting in Metchosin had a criminal history and possible gang ties.
Shane Wilson was killed in what police believe to be a targeted shooting in the 4600 block of Sooke Road.
Wilson, a professional MMA fighter, is being remembered as a loyal friend who “would go out of his way to help or be there for anyone he loved or cared for,” according to a fundraising page set up to support his family with funeral costs.
He had a criminal history. Last year, he was sentenced to three years in prison followed by two years of probation for his role in a violent home invasion in July 2018. During the invasion, he wore a red mask with two gaping eyeholes and the word “Support” written between the eyes — a Hells Angels garment, according to the agreed statement of facts entered as a court exhibit at his sentencing.
Wilson and two others entered a man’s home with weapons and threatened him. They accused the victim of being a drug dealer who had sold a fatal dose to their friend and demanded money for the funeral.
One of the men, Julio Alvarez, stole electronics, two air soft guns and about $4,000 US in cash from the victim’s safe, while Wilson lay on a bed watching his friends threaten the victim and rifle through the man’s belongings.
Wilson pleaded guilty to robbery, unlawfully entering a dwelling house with intent to commit an indictable offence and having his face masked.
The judge was required to consider Wilson’s Aboriginal background, including adverse conditions many Aboriginals face — called the Gladue analysis.
He called the circumstances of Wilson’s upbringing, through childhood and youth, “terribly, terribly sad,” saying they included significant neglect, abuse and physical violence.
He had been held in custody since his arrest in 2018 and would have been released shortly after his sentencing last July because of credit for time served in pre-trial custody.
In 2011, he was found guilty of assault causing bodily harm for an offence in Victoria.
West Shore RCMP have released little information about the shooting or the victim, saying only that he lived in the Metchosin area and was known to police.
The shooter remains at large. Police do not believe there is any threat to the public.
The Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit has taken over the investigation.
Friday’s shooting is the second suspected targeted killing in the area in a little more than a year. In January 2020, West Shore RCMP responded to a vehicle collision on Humpback Road and discovered the body of a man inside an SUV.
Const. Alex Bérubé said that investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made. The victim has not been identified.
There is nothing to suggest the two killings are related, he said.
Police are asking anyone with information about Friday’s shooting and anyone who was in the area between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Friday to contact VIIMCU at 250-380-6211 or West Shore RCMP at 250-474-2264.
— With a file from Louise Dickson
