Police were called to investigate the suspected gang-related shooting of the 34-year-old man in a parking lot shortly before 4:45 p.m.

Naicker was reportedly a co-founder of the Independent Soldiers gang. He was convicted in 2006 for the kidnapping, confinement and extortion of a criminal associate linked to a previous double homicide and $400,000 drug theft.

The former Burnaby resident had been described in court as a Fijian with a "big face, a heavy voice and a red and green tattoo of a dragon extending from one shoulder to the other," and had sometimes gone by the nickname "Big Bar."

But a friend who did not want to be named said Naicker was reformed.

"He wasn't a gangster anymore. He didn't have that lifestyle anymore," the source said. ""He'd cleaned up his life. Everything was good. He had a whole new lease on life."

Naicker's death is the second targeted shooting in as many months, police said.

On May 7, a Coquitlam residence was peppered with multiple shots in what RCMP called a targeted attack. No one was in the home at the time of the 4:14 a.m. shooting.