The man accused of killing an innocent teenager and a gang member in a shootout eight years ago has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 17 years.
Kane Carter was found guilty last December of the second-degree murders of 15-year-old Alfred Wong and 23-year-old Kevin Whiteside.
A second-degree murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence. Accounting for time already served, Carter can apply for parole in 2039.
Wong was riding in the backseat of his parents car on their way home from dinner when he was hit in the chest by a stray bullet from an exchange of gunfire along Vancouver’s busy Broadway on Jan. 13, 2018.
Speaking outside the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, Wilfred Wong said his brother Alfred is missed dearly and not a day goes by where the family doesn’t think about him.
“It doesn’t feel quite like closure but it’s a step in the process,” he said. “We’re thankful that through this system that the city will be safer.”
Kane Carter, found guilty on two counts of second-degree murder, has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 17 years. (Felicity Don/CBC)
The officer in charge of the investigation for the past eight years said Wong’s murder caused fear and outrage that an innocent teen was the victim of gang violence.
“What should have been a family night out for the Wong’s ended up in a horrifying tragedy that shook the city of Vancouver,” said Vancouver police Insp. Mike Heard. “Alfred’s death was needless.”
Investigators say Whiteside was trying to kill rival gangster Matthew Navas-Rivas as he left a Broadway restaurant when Carter opened fire. Crown prosecutors said during trial that Carter was trying to protect Navas-Rivas.
Navas-Rivas was unharmed that night, however he was killed a few months later in a targeted shooting in East Vancouver.
Carter was arrested in 2022 in Gravenhurst, Ont., north of Toronto. In 2024, his first trial was declared a mistrial and a retrial was ordered.