Who killed Mark Thrower?

Murder victim Mark James Thrower may have seen his assailant 30 minutes before he was gunned down, execution-style, in the hallway directly outside his Richmond apartment on Monday afternoon.

Shortly before 1 p.m. Monday, and about a half hour before the fatal shooting, Thrower called his building’s residential manager about a suspicious looking man in a long, dark trench coat, wearing leather gloves and lurking in his condo’s ground-floor parkade, sources tell The Richmond Review.

At 1:22 p.m., multiple gunshots were heard and the body of the 37-year-old Steveston High graduate was found slumped against the door to the fourth-floor Waterside condominium he shared with his common-law wife and their nearly two-year-old daughter. The home at 5880 Dover Cres., one block west of the No. 2 Road Bridge, is listed in the white pages under Thrower’s mother’s name.

Thrower has been under an evening curfew and has spent most of his time at home ever since his release on $250,000 bail last September on a charge of first-degree murder.

Thrower had left the apartment a little before 1 p.m. to make his weekly court-mandated visit to his bail supervisor.

He drove his black 1998 GMC Blazer to the Richmond provincial courthouse on Elmbridge Way and checked-in with his supervisor in a second-floor office and then left at 1:07 p.m.

Richmond RCMP then received a 911 call at 1:22 p.m.

What happened in the 15-minute interval between Thrower’s leaving the courthouse and the sound of gunfire isn’t clear.

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But the drive between the courthouse and Thrower’s home takes as little as five minutes, depending on the route, leaving about 10 minutes unaccounted for.

Did he stop for gasoline, cigarettes, food or a coffee? Or did he meet up with someone?

Whatever the case, Richmond RCMP are hoping that anyone who saw Thrower Monday afternoon will call them at 604-278-1212.

Thrower and two others are charged with the first-degree murder of Lotus gang member Raymond Man Yuen Chan in 2003.

Up until late last week, Thrower was scheduled to appear in B.C. Supreme Court Monday morning on the charge that he murdered Lotus gang member Raymond Chan in May 2003.

The timing of the shooting, coinciding with the day he was set to get his opportunity to clear his name, has led to speculation that this was a well-executed hit intended to keep him from testifying against his alleged co-conspirators. Or was it an act of revenge by associates of Raymond Chan?

Either way, Thrower’s lawyer and old schoolmate Danny Markovitz says the hitman, or hitmen, got the wrong guy.

“I was having a late lunch and I got a call from (Thrower’s common-law wife) and (she) said I think Mark’s dead, I heard gunshots at the door. She called 911 and they told her to stay inside.”

Police and ambulance crews rushed to the scene and Thrower’s family were evacuated from their balcony via ladder so as not to contaminate the crime scene in the hallway.

Thrower was apparently shot at relatively close range outside the entrance to the apartment, with one bullet lodged in the door.

It wouldn’t have been difficult for the killer to track down Thrower’s whereabouts. Although the name of Thrower’s surety was accessible only by the lawyers involved in the case, there is only one Thrower listed in the Richmond/Delta white pages.

But how did the killer know Thrower was leaving his home around 1 p.m. for that scheduled visit to his probation officer? Was he followed beforehand, and his weekly routine scouted?

“Mark’s been on a virtual 24 hour house arrest situation since his release. He has access to his lawyers and he has access to his court appearances and he has access to his probation officer,” Markovitz said.

Asked whether Thrower might have met someone prior to returning home, Markovitz said: “Mark was extremely conscientious of the terms of his bail...and he would never do anything to jeopardize his standing.”

Has Thrower been the subject of threats?

“He felt that he had nothing to fear and that anybody who was associated with Ray (Chan) would have known that there’s no way he would have done this to Ray...and the only other people to fear were people...in custody,” Markovitz said.

“Mark was extremely eager to have this trial to proceed. In fact, Mark was devastated we were not proceeding as scheduled...It was a sore subject with Mark and one that he thought was an injustice to him because he wanted to have his name cleared. He wants to have his name cleared more than anything because he’s a friend of (murder victim Raymond Chan).”

The tragedy is that Thrower will never have the opportunity to clear his name, he said.

“If whoever killed him, killed him as an act of vengeance, then they killed the wrong person,” he said.

“He was a loving father, husband, son, brother and he will be missed. (His family) never once questioned his innocence.”

In January, the Crown was successful in its bid to join Thrower’s trial with that of co-accused Michael Andrew Mercredi, from Burnaby. But because of the joining of the two trials, Mercredi and his lawyer were not ready to proceed with the commencement of the trial on Monday, forcing the adjournment. The jury compiled for the five-week trial was discharged.

Thrower was scheduled to appear in B.C. Supreme Court again yesterday to fix a new trial date, perhaps for September.

Since his arrest, Thrower has claimed that he and Chan were friends who worked out together at a local fitness club.

Chan’s beaten and bloodied body was found in the alley behind the Richmond provincial courthouse on the morning of May 12, 2003.

Markovitz contends Thrower and Chan were ambushed inside Thrower’s Burkeville home by Campbell, Mercredi and Vancouver’s Justine Nethanial Po.

Chan, 31, was a Lotus gang member whose younger brother Randy was kidnapped and held for 56 hours during a violent armed kidnapping in 1996. Notorious drug dealer Bindy Johal was still facing charges of unlawful confinement and extortion in connection with the kidnapping of Chan’s brother at the time of Johal’s murder in 1999.

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Man ran security business

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Speculation had been that Chan’s murder was in retaliation for Johal’s death.

Thrower ran a security business that provided protection against union hostility during strikes.

“Mike (Mercredi) did some work for him” Markovitz said of the relationship between Thrower and Mercredi.

Thrower does not know the other two men—Po and Maple Ridge’s Aharon Lee Campbell—who have also been charged.

“There’s nothing to link Mark to the planning, orchestrating or taking part in this killing,” Markovitz said in a previous interview.

“There’s nothing against Mark except innuendo.”