A police officer looks at the victim's motorcycle as they investigate the shooting death of a man on Columbia St. near West 11 Ave. in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday August 12, 2010.Darryl Dyck/The Globe and Mail
Roused by the sound of gunfire, pyjama-clad Megan Stewart rushed from her apartment in an upscale Vancouver neighbourhood, reaching the sidewalk just in time to see the death throes of a notorious rogue Hells Angel member.
Two houses away, 41-year-old Juel Ross Stanton was dying after being shot several times.
Ms. Stewart said she heard 11 gunshots just after 6 a.m. Thursday - and then silence. She started to wonder whether the noise she heard was actually gunfire.
"The answer came when I heard a distraught and anguished woman screaming, just howling, and I heard her shout 'Call 911,' " said Ms. Stewart, who is a reporter at the Vancouver Courier.
Once on the street, Ms. Stewart could see two women and two men, all of whom were screaming.
"I could see [Mr. Stanton's]lower legs convulsing before the police arrived," she said.
When police did arrive, they found Mr. Stanton dead behind a large iron gate at the side of the property, said Vancouver police spokeswoman Constable Jana McGuinness. Mr. Stanton lived at a three-story heritage home on 11th Avenue.
Mr. Stanton was well-known to police, Constable McGuinness said.
"We do know he was a member of the Hells Angels. It is our understanding he was expelled from the club sometime this year," Constable McGuinness said.
Hells Angels member Rick Ciarniello confirmed that Mr. Stanton lost his status with the gang.
"It's club business. It's not for publication," said Mr. Ciarniello, when asked why Mr. Stanton was ejected.
Mr. Stanton's home, flanked by gargoyles and known to fly the Hells Angels colours, sits near City Hall in a high-end Vancouver neighbourhood characterized by massive heritage homes.
The upscale neighbourhood does not preclude gangsters from moving in, Constable McGuinness said. "It is not uncommon for gang members to live in any neighbourhood," she said.
Police have no suspects and would not speculate on the possibility of retaliation, she said. The crime scene remained closed on Thursday as police scoured the area for evidence.
Mr. Stanton was out on bail on a slate of charges, including possessing a weapon for dangerous purpose and assault causing bodily harm. He was due to be arraigned at a Vancouver courtroom the morning he was killed.
The charges relate to two violent incidents that occurred at the Ivanhoe Pub on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
At the time of the charges, Vancouver police said Mr. Stanton had been using his gang tattoos and membership to intimidate other citizens.
Inspector Brad Desmarais said the police even took the unprecedented step of complaining to the Hells Angels East End chapter president about Mr. Stanton, saying "it would be in [the president's]best interest to compel Mr. Stanton to stop doing that."
A judge later slapped Mr. Stanton with a series of tough release conditions that barred him from wearing Hells Angels clothing and from displaying his club tattoos.
Intimidation was Mr. Stanton's modus operandi, according to investigative journalist Julian Sher.
"Juel Stanton had the amazing ability to give the Hells Angels a bad name," Mr. Sher said. "He did it by being a thug among the thugs."
"He used not just his brawn, but his affiliation with the Hells Angels. He would use his tattoos and he would flash it in bars," Mr. Sher said. "He revelled in the violence that came with the Hells Angels."
Port Moody police Inspector Andy Richards said he was not surprised to hear about Mr. Stanton's death.
"He's a guy that would have had a long, long list of enemies."
Mr. Stanton was involved with biker gangs since the late 1990s, starting out with The Regulators, a Hells Angels puppet club, according to Insp. Richards, who is a former Vancouver Police Department officer.
"He took bullying and violence to a whole new level. He was a debt collector and an extortionist by trade," he said.
It was a trade he started early, according to Insp. Richards, who said the ex-Hells Angels member grew up in a low-income, single-parent family and gravitated toward a life of crime at a very young age.
According to his lawyer, Brian Jackson, Mr. Stanton was a hard worker and his construction business, Juel Forming Co., recently worked on the Woodward's building in downtown Vancouver.
Mr. Stanton was also very close with his family and leaves behind his wife and son, he said.