REAL SCOOP: Hells Angel Suminder Grewal laid to rest
Credit to Author: Kim Bolan| Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2019 04:05:28 +0000
Here’s my story:
More than 250 Hells Angels joined family and friends of murdered Hardside biker Suminder (Allie) Grewal at a Delta funeral home on Friday.
Wearing their “colours” — leather vests with Hells Angels death heads on the back — they arrived in formation on Harleys and in cars from as far away as the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec.
They wore black commemorative armbands with Grewal’s nickname, Allie, on them.
Grewal was shot to death about 9:20 a.m. on Aug. 2, as he sat in his Dodge Viper in a Starbucks drive-thru in South Surrey.
Two Edmonton men, Calvin Junior Powery-Hooker, 20, and Nathan James De Jong, 21, were arrested nearby and have been charged with first-degree murder. Their next court appearance is Aug. 27.
Many of the bikers who arrived for the service at the Riverside Funeral Home remained outside the back door during the service, having conversations with each other. Some ate McDonald’s burgers that a junior member of the Hells Angels program delivered to them.
Grewal’s prayer card contained “the bikers’ prayer:” “May the sun rise in front of me, the rain fall behind me and the wind follow me. May the angels guard my travels for they know what is ahead of me. Keep me safe through swirling turns and rolling hills. Let the eagle guide me to the mountain tops. Let the moonlight guide me through the night. Lord, thank you for letting me be a biker.”
And there was a touching tribute written by his family saying he will “always be alive in our hearts because nothing can keep us apart.”
More senior Hells Angels from other parts of Canada attended than were at the service last December of Chad Wilson, Grewal’s associate in the Hardside Chapter who was also murdered Nov. 18. No one has yet been charged his case.
Even a legendary Ontario Hells Angel, Walter Stadnick, attended the service, months after his parole conditions expired. He was convicted in Quebec in 2004 on several organized crime charges, including conspiracy to commit murder. He was once the Canadian president of the biker gang.
B.C.’s anti-gang agency, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, has already said it is doing everything it can to ensure there will be no retaliation for Grewal’s public execution.
Homicide investigators are looking at the possibility that the accused men were hired by a rival gang.
CFSEU officers joined Delta police, Vancouver police and Surrey RCMP’s uniformed gang enforcement team outside the Delta funeral home, snapping photographs and video and generally keeping the peace.
CFSEU Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said her agency was there working “collaboratively with our policing partners, providing support via our specialized resources, such as Uniform Gang Enforcement Team, analysts, intelligence, and outlaw motorcycle gang experts, as wealways do when there are gang connected homicides, mitigating or disrupting any potential retaliatory acts of violence.”
Some of the bikers took their own video on mobile phones as they drove into the parking lot.
Not only did Hells Angels members attend from every Canadian province, members of their support or “puppet” clubs were also at the service, wearing their vests and patches. The Devils Army, Savages and Veterans from Vancouver Island joined Lower Mainland support clubs like Los Diablos, Jesters, Street Reapers, the Shadow Club and the Horsemen Brotherhood, as well as the Okanagan’s Throttle Lockers.
Grewal started his biker career as a prospect with the Haney chapter, but became a full-patch Hells Angel once he moved to the new Hardside Chapter, which opened in 2017.
He created an alliance between his chapter and the Brothers Keepers, who also attended Friday’s funeral.
Later Friday, the Hells Angels and other bikers gathered at the Hardside’s Surrey clubhouse near 96th Avenue and 180th Street. Police were also on hand taking photographs of event attendees.
kbolan@postmedia.com
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