Ronaldo Lising, the first of the biker gang to be criminally convicted in BC, is expected to survive his injuries after the targeted shooting Monday morning.
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A former Hells Angel member who was the first of the biker gang to be criminally convicted in BC was shot outside his Burnaby home on Monday.
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Ronaldo Lising, 59, is expected to survive his injuries after the targeted shooting in the 7000 block of Patterson Ave. Monday morning.
Burnaby RCMP received reports of one person injured near Patterson Avenue and Hurst Street around 11:20 am, Cpl. Mike Kalanj said.
“When police arrived, they found an injured man with what appear to be gunshot wounds. The victim was conscious and breathing when he was transported to the hospital for treatment,” he said. “It appears that the shooting occurred in the area where the victim was found, although police are still on the scene gathering information.”
Kalanj said the Burnaby Major Crimes Unit is working closely with the Combined Forces Gang Special Enforcement Unit “to determine if this shooting has any ties to the Lower Mainland gang conflict or organized crime.”
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He did not identify the victim, but sources confirmed to Postmedia that it was, in fact, the longtime motorcyclist who was the target.
Kalanj said investigators are looking for witnesses or drivers with dashcam video who were in the area Monday morning.
BC property records show Lising has owned his home on the block where he was shot since 2004. It is currently appraised at $1.6 million.
Retired Vancouver Police Detective. Brad Stephen, a motorcycle expert, said Monday that Lising “has been a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club for over 20 years.”
He noted that Lising had started with the East End chapter and then in 2004 transferred to Nomads, the most elite of the 10 Hells Angels chapters in BC.
“It is a very rare event for a full patch Hells Angel to be filmed at his residence. To my knowledge, only one other BC Hells Angel has been shot at his residence and that was East End Hells Angel David Swartz, way back in the ’80s.”
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Swartz was a full member of the East End chapter when he was shot dead in Surrey on April 6, 1988 by a friend after an all-night drinking party. The friend later killed himself with the same weapon.
Lising and fellow cyclist Francisco Pires were convicted in July 2001 on drug trafficking charges stemming from a Vancouver police investigation called Project Nova. The convictions were the first for the BC Hells Angels since the club began in this province in 1983.
Lising was arrested again after an RCMP investigation dubbed E-Pandora, in which agent Micheal Plante infiltrated the East End chapter for the police, secreting months of recorded conversations.
In July 2007, Lising was convicted of possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking and assault. Less than a year later, he was convicted of criminal contempt for refusing to testify against his fellow Hells Angel David Giles.
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And in July 2009, Lising was sentenced to 30 months in prison on top of a nine-year cumulative sentence after he was convicted of possession of two illegal firearms while out on bail in 2005 on the above charges.
Both weapons, a Rossi .357 Magnum revolver and a Walther .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol, were found at his Burnaby home, as well as a bulletproof vest and “kidnapping kit” containing a black ski mask, gloves, two-way. spokes and plastic “zap straps” used as makeshift handcuffs.
At Lising’s sentencing on the weapons charges, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Selwyn Romilly said the evidence He showed that “he is a proud Hells Angel. He sports a Hells Angels tattoo on his arm and is often seen wearing Death’s Head earrings. His house is full of Hells Angels paraphernalia and there are Death Head decals on the seven-foot-high fence that surrounds it.”
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“The evidence also establishes that Lising views the Hells Angels as a club that should be ready for violence and membership in the club as an opportunity to make money.”
Romilly highlighted some of Lising’s conversations with Plante in her ruling, including one in which the biker attacked the United Nations gang, saying, “They’re not welcome in this damn province. They’re not allowed”.
After Lising was paroled, he was hired as a garbage collector for the city of Vancouver, but was fired in the fall of 2013 after a Postmedia reporter revealed his criminal ties.
He has kept a low profile in recent years, though he regularly attends Hells Angel rides and other events.
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