Well known among regular staff at Super Valu on Davie Street is that alleged shoplifters were beaten in a back room by the dairy section of the store and polaroids* of their mangled faces were kept in the office supposedly to tip off the night shift to apprise them for whom to look out. But little could they have expected that at approximately 10 a.m. on Monday morning of May 1, 2000, Hells Angels’ member and store owner, Ross Maclellan - after being alerted by a cashier of a shoplifter attempting to exit the store with a small block of cheese - would erupt in a fit of rage, chasing the man down by the west entrance to the store and pummel his diseased body into a state of unconsciousness. After ramming the victim’s head into a President’s Choice pop machine by the exit passageway in full view of numerous witnesses both inside and passers-by outside the store, Maclellan continued his assault by repeatedly kicking the man until a profuse volume of blood was evident in the doorway and on the sidewalk.
(* “I have pictures to add a ring of truth to the above statements.” –see comment posted in issue #2)
One horrified female witness was crying out, “Call the police! I want this man charged with assault!” Inside the store, a frightened staff member called 911 and MacLellan then urged him to call them back and report that everything was fine, that the man would be OK, and not to bother the police to attend. Meanwhile, he asked another member of staff to bring his Jeep around from the front of the store to the back alley where he then fled to make his escape but not before instructing his manager to swab the blood way from the passageway of the store.
The ambulance arrived and urgently bundled the unconscious man away to St Paul’s hospital. The police arrived and began their note-taking. Eventually, days later, city detectives were to arrive and question a few of the staff.
Two days after the beating the victim died.
The police incident file was conveyed to the Crown for disposition re laying of charges. Despite the plethora of witnesses, the attendance of the ambulance paramedics, the doctors and nurses who witnessed the victim’s injuries, and the coroner’s report and the police report to Crown, no charges were laid against Maclellan.
Shortly after this incident Maclellan could be overheard bragging about his conduct to the representatives of Westfair Grocers, who sold him the franchise more than two decades ago.
Subsequent calls to Westfair Grocers by this writer resulted in the return call of franchise manager Brian Atkinson who, when being informed of the fact that their Davie Street franchisee was a member of the Hells Angels and had regularly been thrashing alleged shoplifters, said, “I can’t comment on this. I really can’t comment on any of this.”
Repeated calls to Loblaws CEO Galen Weston, ultimately the man responsible for supplying many of the goods these subsidiaries purvey, resulted in no return call. And repeated calls to President’s Choice foods, a subsidiary of Loblaws who also supply MacLellan, have resulted in no responses.
IF ANYTHING VIOLENT SHOULD BEFALL ME FOR HAVING REPORTED THIS… I ask that Mssrs Edward Greenspon and Doug Kelly, the editors of The Globe and Mail and The National Post respectively, publish a list of the names of every business in Canada which is currently owned by a member of the Hells Angels. And then to call for a national boycott of this group. This list can be procured from The RCMP as evidenced by the Vancouver Sun having printed the local list last September.
‘Death Mask’ below by MAYA KULENOVIC
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