Opinion
Barry Artiste
Two of Vancouvers finest, moonlighting as Wedding Videographers must have thought Christmas had come early as they were hired unknownst by gang associates to video tape a wedding of a well known gangster and his gang associates.
Certainly a prime gig most police services would jump at the chance to film. Kudos to VPD and the two brothers, in what will make water cooler talk with Police Agencies world wide.
Police getting the blessing of Gang associates to attend and videotape wedding nuptials and festivities will surely be a wedding present for the groom and a gift in court if gang associates on bail or conditions of their parole etc, forbids them from associating with other known gang members.
Photos posted are unrelated and generic in nature
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=3a7b03cd-aff9-45d6-a5e6-d37ed554d75e
VPD members with video business on the side hired by shooting suspect
Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, September 05, 2008
Two brothers with the Vancouver Police Department who moonlight as wedding videographers recently worked a Surrey reception attended by several known gangsters, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
In fact, the groom at the nuptials, filmed by police constables Adam and Steve Dhaliwal, is a suspect in the October 2005 shooting of former Port Moody resident Laurie Tinga. Aneil Singh Atwal got married at the Gurdwara Dukh Nivaran Sahib temple on Aug. 9 and later held his reception at the Bombay Banquet Hall.
Atwal was named in a B.C. Supreme Court civil suit filed by Tinga a year ago as one of several gangsters believed to have been involved in a shootout on the street outside her condo when a stray bullet flew through her window, leaving Tinga critically wounded and partially paralysed. Police said last year that while suspects had been identified in the shooting, prosecutors did not have enough evidence yet to lay charges.
Aneil Atwal has had other run-ins with the law, according to court records. He was charged in 2004 with assaulting a peace officer, but the charge was later dismissed.
In January 2005, he was charged in Vancouver following a physical confrontation in the street, found guilty on a minor charge in May 2006 and was fined $300. Several of Atwal’s gang associates also attended his wedding reception, at which both Dhaliwal brothers worked.
Adam Dhaliwal has spoken out at youth forums on the dangers of falling into the gang lifestyle and Steve is a VPD member of the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force.
One of the guests at the party was Nachatar Singh (Nash) Bagri, who is out on bail after being charged with threatening to kill a member of the gang task force last February.
The groom’s older brother, Harminder Singh (Bobby) Atwal, is serving a six-year sentence handed to him earlier this year after he and several associates pleaded guilty to playing a role in a violent gang-related drug kidnapping.
The Atwals’ dad, Harjit Singh Atwal, is a former member of the terrorist International Sikh Youth Federation who hung up when The Vancouver Sun contacted him Thursday.
Another former ISYF member, Jaspal Singh Atwal — not related — was also at the wedding. Jaspal Atwal was convicted of attempted murder for his part in a 1986 assassination plot targeting a visiting Indian politician.
Tags: British Columbia | Vancouver | Crime | police | Wedding | murder | video | opinion | World | gangs | Surrey | VPD
