REGINA – The second day of an attempted murder trial began with an expert witness on Regina street gangs.
Cst. Trevor Weir, a 16-year veteran of the Regina Police Service, gave testimony on his experience through his six years of involvement with the Street Gang Unit.
“Regina is a little bit different from what we see in a lot of major centres, even centres of similar size,” Weir said when asked by Crown prosecutor David Belanger how Regina street gangs compare to other centres. Weir explained that in larger centres, there are multiple gangs operating in different areas with no one group claiming dominance. Even in Saskatoon - a comparable sized city to Regina - many gangs of similar size and strength function.
“Regina, for a lot of years, was controlled by one large group,” Weir said. While multiple gangs have coexisted, one group has been dominant; a power that has shifted as Weir provided a historical timeline relevant to Regina.
“For many years, Regina was more of less controlled by the Native Syndicate,” Weir explained, noting their presence in the Queen City dated back to 1994. A tidal shift occurred with the introduction of the Native Syndicate Killers in 2004, inevitably causing a gang war between the two. As fate would have it, prominent members of the NSK soon spent time incarcerated - once again giving the NS more power and membership.
In 2014, the Indian Mafia began to transition from Balcarres to Regina, gaining more traction after an intense police investigation dubbed Project Shred targeted a large group of NS members. With a significant portion of high-ranking NS membership behind bars, a shift in gang members once affiliated with NS and NSK “patched over” to the IM, who had effectively taken control of the Regina street gang subculture ever since.
Weir noted a truce occurred between the NSK and IM through 2017 and 2018 where the two groups “appeared to have a bit of a working relationship with each other.” Members of the two gangs were also seen associating with each other, something Weir considered quite uncommon.
However, the peace between gangs was shattered after the 2019 shooting of Denny Jimmy, a prominent member of the NSK riding in a vehicle that had both gangs represented. Jimmy’s murder caused a deep fracture in relations, with the NSK and IM once again bitter rivals.
During this time period, on Sept. 19, 2019, a drive by shooting occurred, sending a man to hospital with serious injuries. On trial as part of this event is Thomas Adam Stevenson, who appeared in custody for the second day of proceedings. Stevenson had entered a not guilty plea to attempted murder, and another man has already pleaded guilty to discharging the firearm that caused the injuries.
Weir continued his testimony, responding to detailed questions of gang slang terminology, hand signals, graffiti, tattoos, and specific clothing wore by both the NSK and IM.
His appearance concluded the list of witnesses called by Belanger, and defence lawyer Thomas Hynes chose to call no evidence into the proceedings.
Arguments from both Crown and defence will be heard tomorrow.
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