Surrey: Murder victim lured into drug trade: Aunt

by Barry Artiste | October 26, 2007 at 08:07 am | 1797 views | add comment

Stock Photo: Do you really know your Kid?

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Opinion,

Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor

Another myth that the "Gangsta life" is all glamour, made inviting in Movies for impressionable youth markets complete with flashy cars, gats, bling and babes.

Unfortunately youth looking for that easy money glamourous lifestyle has a dark side that is all too real.

Just being an associate, hanger on, a wanna be can get you killed, perhaps what took Ryan's life.

To Mothers, they are all good kids, to kids, they may not be the angels their Mothers put on a pedestal.

Do you really know your kid? There are warning signs, most miss or choose to overlook.

The vicious heartless murderers in this crime have mothers, who may unwittingly be sitting across the dinner table smiling and laughing with his parents and siblings or sitting on the floor watching cartoons, while Mom beams with admiration at her "Pride and Joy", thinking my Kid is such a good kid, until Police Swat or the Coroner come knocking at the door.

Tragically a case where Gang Lifestyle sucks in victims, murderers too, who if you're looking for trouble "real or imagined" it will certainly find you.

Surrey -- The aunt of a teenager who was among six men killed in an apartment last Friday says her nephew was a good kid who fell in with the wrong crowd because of the lure of making big money in the drug trade.

"He was well-loved and well-respected," Darlene Bartolomeo said today of her nephew, Ryan Bartolomeo, 19.

"He was an avid soccer player who enjoyed sports," she said. "He was a good kid. But he got tied up with the wrong crowd."

The aunt said her nephew, who grew up in Burnaby before moving to Surrey with his family, is survived by his parents and two sisters, who are devastated by the murder.

"You can't imagine the pain this family is going through," she said. "They didn't find out until Monday morning. Basically he was just missing."

The aunt said she would see Ryan at family dinners but didn't know until this week that he had been charged with crimes - he was charged last December with possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking.

Bartolomeo said her own son, Damon Bartolomeo, 27, had a run-in with the law when he was in his early 20s. Damon was accused in 2002, along with a Hells Angels member, of being involved in a violent marijuana-growing operation rip-off in Surrey, but he was acquitted at trial.

Since then, she said, her son hasn't had any problems and now is working. She said older criminals prey on young kids with no criminal records.

"It's got to stop," she said. "He didn't deserve this," she said of her nephew's gang-style murder. "No one deserves this."

Police said that of the six people killed in last Friday's multiple murder, two were in the "wrong place at the wrong time" - neighbour Chris Mohan, 22, and gas fireplace repairman Edward J. Schellenberg, 55.

The other four young men had been charged with various drug-trafficking and weapons-related offences.

The one with the most charges was Eddie Narong, 22, who had been convicted of manslaughter for his role in a fatal beating in 2000. Narong was only 14 when he took part in the fatal beating of Richard Jung, who was bludgeoned to death in the Hi-Max Karaoke club in Coquitlam, near Lougheed Mall.

The death occurred after Narong's friend, Michael Le, was beaten by a group of Korean youths. In response, Le called in more than 20 friends to help him in an attack that resulted in Jung's death. Le was originally convicted of second-degree murder in the death, but won a new trial on appeal, then pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Narong, who testified against some of his co-accused, also pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Some of those convicted went on to join a multi-ethnic street gang known as the Red Scorpions, whose members sported scorpion tattoos and were involved in drug trafficking in Coquitlam and other Lower Mainland suburbs. Also killed in Friday's mass murder were brothers Corey Lal, 21, and Michael Lal, 26, of Surrey.

More than 100 officers are assisting in the murder investigation, including members of the Integrated Gang Task Force. Police have confiscated video surveillance tapes from the King George and Surrey Central SkyTrain stations from the night of the murder and today questioned transit users about whether they certain people depicted in photographs.

Cpl. Dale Carr told reporters police were looking for anyone associated with the dead men.

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