Killing with HK link shocks Vancouver

The murder of a 45-year-old Chinese man, husband of a prominent property agent and former beauty queen from Hong Kong, has shocked the Chinese community in Vancouver, Canada.

The man, a car salesman, was shot dead early on Saturday morning, killed by multiple shots at short range, as he sat in his white Cadillac outside his home in east Vancouver.

Police did not immediately release his full name, but neighbours identified him as James or Jimmy, according to the Vancouver media.

His wife, Sandy Wong, a Hong Kong immigrant, had been a property agent in the city since 1994. She had won a beauty contest in Montreal before then, according to reports.

Vancouver's Chinese community has been terrified by a spate of shootings in the past three months, allegedly relating to gang disputes.

On November 3, gangster Raymond Huang Hong-chao, 45, was found fatally shot in front of his Vancouver home.

Constable Howard Chow told Vancouver's The Province newspaper that the latest shooting was reported at 2am on Saturday after several of the man's neighbours in Napier Street had called the police.