On April 12, police received a report of an injured man at a residence and arrived at the scene to find a man dead in a front-attached garage
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Edmonton police have charged three people in relation to the southwest Edmonton homicide of a man known for criminal activity in BC
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On April 12, police received a report of an injured man at a residence near Erasmus Wynd and Erasmus Crescent, and arrived at the scene to find a man dead in a front-attached garage.
Police later identified the man as 41-year-old Curtis Vidal, a homicide victim who died of multiple gunshot wounds according to an autopsy completed by the Edmonton medical examiner.
Vidal, who was known for criminal activity in BC, had been living in Alberta since completing an eight-year sentence for BC convictions related to a violent 2013 home invasion in the Fraser Valley.
Based on Chilliwack before his latest sentence, Vidal was close to Hells Angels associate Clayton Eheler and had been aligned earlier with the Red Scorpions and Independent Soldiers before shifts in those gangs.
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Vidal’s younger brother James, then 33, was shot to death in Chilliwack on March 10, 2019. No one has been charged in the murder.
The BC Supreme Court judge who last sentenced Curtis Vidal in February 2016 noted that he had 55 convictions over a 20-year period at the time.
Justice Brian Joyce said Vidal, who was born in Surrey before moving to Chilliwack as a teen, “had a tumultuous childhood” and “became involved in the criminal justice system starting in 1995 as a youth.”
In 2009, Joyce also sentenced Vidal to three and a half years in prison after he fired a Beretta into his own vehicle following a fight with his then girlfriend.
“He was then involved in a police pursuit through the streets of downtown Chilliwack,” Joyce wrote. “The police pursuit ended when Mr. Vidal jumped from the SUV while it was still moving. The SUV continued down the street for a short distance before it crashed into an apartment building. Mr. Vidal ran from the scene and escaped the police. In the SUV the police found a loaded 9 mm Beretta handgun from which they were able to retrieve Mr. Vidal’s DNA.”
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Before he left BC, Vidal had been in conflict with members of the United Nations gang.
Edmonton police have charged Ricardo Gomez-Jimenez, 27, with first-degree murder, use of a firearm while committing an offence, conspiracy to commit murder, possession of stolen property over $5,000 and two counts of breach of condition of a release order.
Police have also charged 27-year-old Colin Penner with first-degree murder, possession of stolen property over $5,000 and arson, while a third suspect, 24-year-old Jyostna Reddy, has been charged with accessory to murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Penner, Gomez-Jimenez and Reddy are scheduled for court appearances Wednesday, Thursday and Friday respectively.
Edmonton police are not seeking other suspects in this case.
— With files from Kim Bolan
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