Everyone in the system seemed to know about Evan Chase Rain.
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Violent, impulsive, drug-addicted, ugly and unrepentant.
But what can you do, right?
No one gave international student, Harshandeep Singh, 20, the memo about Rain. Instead, the part-time security guard who had only been on the job three days is dead from a bullet in the back.
Cops say it was Rain who pulled the trigger. If convicted, Rain will reach the apex of a lifetime odyssey of violence and crime. He is just the latest in a long line of second, third, fourth and fifth chancers who skew toward evil.
Singh was shot to death in the early morning hours of Dec. 6 at an Edmonton apartment building. He was discovered in the stairwell suffering from gunshot wounds and died later in hospital.
Homicide detectives quickly arrested Rain and his low-rent gun moll, Judith Saulteaux. Both are charged with first-degree murder.
But the $64,000 question is how did we get to this point? Every day, I see police blotters from across the country and probably 75% of those busted are tagged with failure to comply charges.
Cops bust ’em, the courts spring ’em. Cops arrest them again, the courts spring ’em.
Even the National Parole Board didn’t have much good to say about Rain and noted he was only released after his last jolt in jail because of mandatory sentencing. Two-thirds and you’re out.
Parole documents obtained by our sister paper, the Edmonton Journal, paint a grim portrait of a time bomb destined to explode.
Before hitting the big-time, Rain’s criminal CV contained convictions for kidnapping, assault, high-speed chases with cops and a litany of other violent crimes reportedly fuelled by addictions.
At his last command performance in front of the parole board in April 2023, member Marilyn Kenny wrote: “You have shown you are willing to use violence with and without weapons.”
To wit: In 2019, Rain was on conditions when he led cops on that high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle. Officers found a bag with a sawed-off shotgun, ammo and methamphetamines.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison. Rain was also slapped with a lifetime firearms prohibition.
We know how that worked out.
And in the slammer, he assaulted fellow inmates, breaking one con’s nose and stabbing another with a homemade shank.
His criminal history is simply too extensive to repeat here unabridged.
Parole board reports noted that Rain doesn’t accept any responsibility for his crimes or even participate in prison programs designed to rehabilitate degenerate criminals.
Of course, Rain’s advocates have pointed to his Indigenous background and tumultuous childhood as the root of his violent disposition.
And as Frank Sinatra crooned, “For every man there’s a woman.” In Rain’s life, that appears the delightful Judith Saulteaux, 30, who also boasts a colourful past. In 2017, she was locked up and sentenced to three years for aggravated assault and weapons charges.
The tragic truth is that Evan Chase Rain is not an anomaly. Increasingly, he is the norm.
In the past three weeks, cops in Vancouver have issued warnings about violent offenders being released into the public realm.
Tyler Gordon Strathdee, 36, a dangerous offender was sprung earlier this week and living in a halfway house. He had been serving an 11-year sentence for a slew of violent crimes in Alberta, including sexual assault and manslaughter.
David Richard Morin stabbed a stranger at a Vancouver Tim Hortons in 2022. He was sprung on mandatory release.
He breached the conditions of his release and was busted on a Canada-wide warrant. He was re-released in November and cops raised a red flag.
How long will it be until Strathdee and Morin get their murder buttons? The family of Harshandeep Singh and the rest of us would desperately like to know.
@HunterTOSun