Hamilton hitman's first job was failed Hells Angels execution

The woman dressed in a burqa carefully clutching her purse boarded the Canada Line SkyTrain at the Bridgeport station in Richmond, B.C.

It was lunchtime on April 10, 2015. From Bridgeport, it's three stops and seven minutes to the end of the line at Vancouver International Airport.

What the other commuters didn't know was that the woman in the burqa wasn't a woman at all.
Underneath the disguise was Knowah Truth Ferguson, a Hamilton man just two months past his 18th birthday. Inside the purse was a .45-calibre gun and a Glock pistol.

Three weeks earlier, Ferguson had crossed the country on a Greyhound bus to Vancouver to make some "quick and easy" money, as he described it.

He was starting a new career as a contract killer for a notorious B.C. gang known as the United Nations and on this dreary spring day, he was headed to his first assignment — an audacious and very public hit on a Hells Angels' target who was going to be sitting in the crowded food court at the airport's international terminal. It didn't turn out as planned, though, and Ferguson is now in the midst of an 11-year prison sentence.

Last month, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Since his arrest in Vancouver on June 14, 2015, Ferguson has spent virtually all of his adult life in prison, with another six-and-a-half years left to serve.

Gino McCall, also from Hamilton, was arrested along with Ferguson. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder last November and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

A third Hamilton man, who can only be identified as Witness X by court order, was also arrested with the other two. Witness X signed a plea deal with the Crown to provide evidence against Ferguson in exchange for a 38-month sentence on a firearms offence.

Ferguson declined to comment through his Vancouver-based lawyer.
This story is based on details contained in a lengthy sentencing decision for Ferguson held Aug. 29 in a Vancouver court.

Knowah Ferguson grew up in social housing in Hamilton, surrounded by a loving extended family who were engaged in church and social activities. His grandparents immigrated to Canada from Jamaica in the early 1970s. Ferguson's father wrestled with unemployment and was in and out of jail for minor offences. Ferguson's mother, meanwhile, struggled to support the family as the only breadwinner and occasionally they would have to rely on social assistance. Ferguson's parents separated when he was 10.

In Grade 9, Ferguson — who is black — was suspended from school after he punched another student who called him a racial slur. He decided to move in with his father but his father's repeated absences left Ferguson with the job of being a parent to his younger siblings. He stayed in school sporadically until Grade 11, then briefly attended an alternative high school in Grade 12.

When he was 16, Ferguson left home. He moved in with an older friend who was involved in criminal activities, and Ferguson's circle of friends soon included others with a similar disposition.
Over time, the older friend and his circle started grooming Ferguson for a life of crime, telling him he could make big money if he headed west to do targeted killings. The older friend, it turns out, was trying to ingratiate himself with the United Nations gang.

JOHNNY K-9

The UN is a violent Vancouver-based gang established in the late 1990s that takes its name from the many different nationalities of its members. Aside from Ferguson and his older friend, there was another Hamilton connection to the UN gang. One of the gang's associate members was the late Ion Kroitoru — a longtime Hamilton underworld figure and former pro wrestler also known as Johnny K-9, who died in 2017.

Subtlety is not one of the gang's attributes.
One UN gang member shot dead another gangster in the parking lot of a suburban Vancouver mall in broad daylight because the dead man had left the UN for another gang. In another case, the UN gang had one of its own members assassinated in Mexico because the gang feared he was going to turn on them.

In one court decision following a UN member's murder trial, the judge included a section titled "The Dead and Wounded," which rhymed off a long list of victims from an ongoing turf war between the UN and a rival gang.

In early 2015, around the time he turned 18, Ferguson met Witness X and convinced him to join him on a cross-country bus trip to carry out hits in Vancouver on behalf of the UN.

Ferguson and Witness X arrived in Vancouver on March 18, 2015. They checked into the City Centre Motel, a low-budget option not far from downtown, and they were given $4,000 to cover their living expenses.

And there they waited as Ferguson tried to arrange a contract.
Finally, in early April, Ferguson told Witness X they could make $200,000 by carrying out a hit on someone at the Vancouver International Airport. He met with two men in an alley off Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver and was given a bag containing two handguns, a silencer and some ammunition.

Just before the hit was to be carried out, Ferguson and Witness X were told where they could pick up a stolen vehicle to use during the hit. They bought some cans of gas so they could destroy the vehicle once the job was finished.

Knowah Ferguson arrived at the international terminal a little after 1 p.m. on that April day three years ago and went straight to the food court. He had previously scouted out the location of the hit and had practised taking off his disguise in a stairwell so he could make his getaway.

The target was Damion Ryan, a 37-year-old fully-patched member of the Hells Angels.
Ferguson knew that Ryan was being lured to the food court by Thomas Duong, who is associated with the UN gang. Earlier this year, Duong was sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempted murder when he shot a rival in a Richmond, B.C., park in a failed hit.

At around 1:40 p.m., Duong sat down at a table and, a few minutes later, the bald and burly Ryan walked over, shook hands with Duong and sat down.

Still dressed in the burqa, Ferguson went to a nearby women's washroom and waited. He then walked to the food court and sat at a table behind Ryan.

A few more minutes ticked by. Then Ferguson got up, walked up behind Ryan, put the Glock against the back of his head and pulled the trigger.
Click. Nothing happened. The gun jammed.

Ryan ducked, then jumped up and ran through the food court to escape.

Ferguson tried to get the second gun out of the purse, but by then, Ryan was gone. Duong, meanwhile, got up and casually walked away from the table, carrying a drink in his hand.

Ferguson took off toward the stairs, ran outside and into a stairwell in the parking garage. He took off the burqa, stuffed it in a bag and then hopped on the SkyTrain back to the Bridgeport station.

Witness X was waiting for Ferguson in a stolen car. They drove to a deserted location in south Vancouver, doused the vehicle with gas, then torched it along with the burqa. The car exploded, though, and both men suffered burns to their hands and faces.

They ran away and hailed a taxi back to the City Centre Motel.
Back at the airport, people seated in the food court weren't even aware that an attempted murder had just taken place.

In fact, it took several days before police were able to piece together what had happened and an investigation was launched by B.C.'s anti-gang agency led by the RCMP. Undeterred by the failure of his first attempt as a hitman, Ferguson immediately tried to arrange a second contract.

Eventually, another hit was arranged. Ferguson was told, the target was someone important who needed to be eliminated. For this job, two shooters and a driver were necessary. Gino McCall was sent from Hamilton and arrived at the City Centre Motel on May 6 to join Ferguson and Witness X.
This time, the plan involved two stolen vehicles and a suitcase full of weapons that included an AK-47 automatic rifle, three semi-automatic pistols, a silencer and extra magazines.

The trio would drive to the target's residence in Surrey in one of the stolen vehicles, shoot him, burn the first vehicle, then take off in a second stolen vehicle that had already been planted nearby.

Witness X was going to be the driver, Ferguson and McCall were going to be the shooters.
The hit was scheduled for June 13, 2015. The three men left the motel around 7 p.m. in a stolen Ford F-350 truck with the suitcase of guns in the back seat. They arrived in Surrey and waited near the target's home. And waited. And waited.

But the target was nowhere to be found. After several fruitless hours, the trio decided to drive back to the motel and try again the next day.

That's when their luck ran out.
As they were driving back to the City Centre Motel in the early hours of June 14, the owner of the stolen truck happened to see his vehicle drive past. He called police and the trio was pulled over not far from the motel.

The police found Witness X wearing latex gloves, McCall wearing black gloves, two cans of gasoline, and Ferguson in the back seat next to the suitcase of guns.
On Aug. 29 of this year in a Vancouver courtroom, Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten sentenced Ferguson following his guilty pleas. Sometimes, she said, determining a just punishment is difficult, "particularly when the offender is a youthful first offender who shows a realistic prospect for rehabilitation, but stands convicted of some of the most serious offences under Canadian law."
"This is one of those cases," the judge stated.

Ferguson is 21 now. Since turning 18, he has spent all but four months in jail.
At the time of his arrest, he was old enough to be tried as an adult but not yet old enough to legally buy a beer.

During sentencing, the judge noted that Ferguson was an amateurish hitman.
After burning themselves during the explosion of the getaway car in the failed hit on Ryan, Ferguson and Witness X panicked, ran into a swamp — where Ferguson lost his shoes — and they ended up covered in mud.

Before the second attempted hit, they were provided with a diesel truck but they ruined the engine when they filled it with regular gasoline. After running out of money and being ordered to vacate the City Centre Motel, they left a suitcase filled with guns in the storage area in the motel's front office while they wandered around Vancouver.

And finally, when they headed out on the ill-fated final attempt, they left their directions back at the motel. Nonetheless, the judge said, Ferguson was carrying dangerous weapons on public transit and planning to shoot Ryan in a very public setting."The potential for innocent bystanders being hurt and/or traumatized by what unfolded in their presence was very real," she said.


On the other hand, the judge said, there were a number of mitigating factors — his youthful age, his difficult upbringing, the fact he had to take on too many adult responsibilities while he was still a boy himself, and his genuine remorse.
"Stepping back, he acknowledges the gravity of what he has done," the judge said.


Since his arrest, Ferguson has been taking steps to complete his high school education and he's also taken some post-secondary courses. He hopes to become an accountant and return to Hamilton when he's released.

He has a large family support system and those who know Ferguson described him as courteous, big-hearted, respectful of his elders and said that the offences were completely out of character.


In the end, the judge sentenced Ferguson to seven years for attempted murder and another four years to be served consecutively for conspiracy to commit murder, minus 1,623 days of credit for time already served.


Canada - HS.