A man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for the first-degree murder of a B.C. man alleged to have been at the centre of an international money-laundering operation.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Alan Ross also handed Richard Charles Reed a six-year prison sentence for intentional discharge of a prohibited weapon and a four-year sentence for possession of a prohibited weapon, which the 26-year-old will serve at the same time as the life sentence.
"It is clear that you have a long road ahead of you. I encourage you to access the programs that are available to you inside the institutions where you will be serving your sentences," the judge told Reed. Reed was found guilty of shooting Jian Jun Zhu at a Japanese restaurant in Richmond, B.
C., in 2020. Zhu, 44, was accused in a high-profile laundering case that collapsed in dramatic fashion in 2018.
The exterior of the Manzo Itamae Japanese restaurant on Sept. 18, 2020, on Capstan Way in Richmond, B.C.
, following the public shooting of two alleged key B.C. money-laundering suspects, one of whom died in the restaurant.
(RCMP) 7 gunshots Court heard that Reed fired seven shots into the busy restaurant through a large glass window. The first shot went into the back of Zhu's head, and the rest were fired randomly to get rid of the remaining bullets, according to the court decision. Reed "planned and deliberated on the murder," having spent 20 minutes surveying the restaurant, according to the judge.
.
