Homicide investigators have seized surveillance video in the vicinity of the double murder last week of gangster Sukh Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel.
But Sgt. Jennifer Pound, of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said Monday police likely won't publicly release the footage.
"We have seized surveillance video as we do in many of our investigations," Pound said of the Dhak-Mantel slayings. "We understand the public may be curious as to what is on the video but the reality is we don't release the footage from surveillance videos for a number of reasons."
She said generally speaking, police have to be very careful when dealing with video.
If persons of interest are on a video, "the public may automatically assume they are suspects or involved in the crime," she said.
"We are obligated under the privacy act to protect the information we obtain - this extends to video footage," Pound said. "We also must ensure the integrity of eye witness accounts of events are not influenced by circulating video footage. It may also protect any holdback evidence we have."
She said there are no further updates on the brazen daylight shooting on Nov. 26.
The Vancouver Sun has learned that Dhak and Mantel were heading to meet someone at the Executive Hotel in the 4200-block of Lougheed Highway.
They were both gunned down as they entered the building's lobby about 11:30 a.m.
Dhak, along with associates in the Duhre crime group, was the subject of a public warning by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit in September 2011. Police said at the time that Dhak and the others might be targeted in rising tensions related to the August 2011 murder of Red Scorpion Jon Bacon and wounding of Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach.
Meanwhile a B.C. Supreme Court judge dropped drug charges against Dhak Monday.
Justice Gail Dickson granted the "abatement" or suspension of the case against Dhak, a 28-year-old who was living in Surrey when he was killed.
Dickson told Dhak's lawyer, Emil Doricic, that he was no longer required.
The trial against Dhak's co-accused - Baljit (Bobby) Pabla and Neville Rankin - then resumed after a weeklong emergency adjournment granted after the shootings.
Federal Crown Sharon Steele said she expected to wrap her case by Wednesday of this week.
Delta Police Sgt. Scott Brandon then testified that he saw both Pabla and Rankin during surveillance in early 2008 as part of a major drug investigation.
Brandon pointed to both Pabla and Rankin in the prisoners' box as the men he observed during the probe, dubbed Project Gateway and led by Delta Police with the assistance of other agencies.
Steele alleged during her opening that Dhak was the mastermind behind a large-scale drug lab in Vancouver where police found close to 18,500 ecstasy pills.
"The Crown's theory of the case is that Mr. Dhak was directing this operation, giving instructions to Mr. Pabla and Mr. Rankin as well as supplying ... ingredients," she said.
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