The tall Hells Angel was shot outside his home in Burnaby

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Ronaldo Leasing, the first of the biker gang to be convicted of criminal offenses in British Columbia, is expected to survive his injuries after Monday morning’s targeted shooting.

Hells Angel Ronaldo Lissing (right, in a 2012 photo) was shot dead outside his home in Burnaby on July 4, 2022. Handout photo/Postmedia News

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A longtime Hells Angels member who was the first of the biker gang to be convicted of a crime in British Columbia was shot and killed outside his Burnaby home on Monday.

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Ronaldo Leasing, 59, is expected to survive his injuries after the targeted shooting in the 7000 block of Patterson Avenue Monday morning.

Burnaby RCMP received reports of an injured person near Patterson and Hurst streets around 11:20 a.m., Cpl. Mike Callange said.

“When police arrived they found an injured man with what appeared to be gunshot wounds. The victim was conscious and breathing when he was transported to the hospital for treatment,” he said. “The shooting appears to have occurred in the area where the victim was found, although police are still gathering information at the scene.”

Callange said Burnaby’s Major Crimes Unit is working closely with the Combined Gang Task Force’s 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 News that the longtime biker had in fact been targeted.

RCMP at the scene of a targeted shooting at 7008 Patterson St. Burnaby on July 4, 2022. Photo by NICK PROCAILLO /PNG

Callange said investigators are looking for witnesses or drivers with dash cam footage who were in the area late Monday morning.

BC property records show Lissing has owned his house on the block where he was shot since 2004. It is currently valued at $1.6 million.

Retired Vancouver police detective Brad Stephen, a cycling expert, said Monday that Lissing “has been a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club for over 20 years.” He noted that Lising started with the East End chapter and then in 2004 moved to the Nomads, the most elite of the 10 Hells Angels chapters in B.C.

“It is very rare for a full-fledged Hells Angel to be shot in 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 in the 1980s.” Swartz was a full member of the East End branch when he was shot in Surrey on April 6 1988 by a friend after a night of drinking. The friend then killed himself with the same gun.

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Lissing and fellow biker Francisco Pires were convicted in July 2001 of drug-trafficking charges stemming from a Vancouver police investigation called Project Nova. The convictions were the first of any BC Hells Angels since the club started in British Columbia in 1983.

Leasing was re-arrested following an RCMP investigation dubbed E-Pandora, in which agent Michael Plant infiltrated the East End police branch, secretly recording conversations for months.

In July 2007, Leasing 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 fellow Hells Angel David Giles.

And in July 2009, Lissing was sentenced to 30 months in prison on top of a nine-year cumulative sentence after pleading guilty to possessing two illegal firearms while out on bail in 2005 on the earlier charges. Both guns — a Rossi .357 Magnum revolver and a Walther .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun — were found at his Burnaby home, along with a body armor and a “kidnapping kit” containing a black balaclava, gloves, two-way radios and plastic “fasteners” used like makeshift handcuffs.

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In sentencing Lissing on the weapons charges, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Selwyn Romilly said the evidence showed he was “a proud Hell’s Angel. He has a Hells Angels tattoo on his arm and is often seen wearing Death Head earrings. His home is filled with Hells Angels paraphernalia and has Death Head stickers on the seven-foot-high fence.

“The evidence also established that Leasing viewed the Hells Angels as a club that should be prepared to commit violence and club membership as a money-making opportunity.”

Romilly highlighted some of Leasing’s conversations with Plante in his ruling, including one in which the biker attacked the UN gang and said, “They’re not welcome in this fucking province. They’re not allowed, dammit.’

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After Leasing was released on parole, he was employed as a trash collector for the City of Vancouver, but was fired in the fall of 2013 after a Postmedia reporter exposed his criminal connections. In recent years, he has been largely unknown, although he regularly attends Hells Angel attractions and other events.

kbolan@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/kbolan

RCMP at the scene of a targeted shooting at 7008 Patterson St. Burnaby on July 4, 2022. Photo by NICK PROCAILLO /PNG

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