Murder victim known to friends as 'kind' & 'hard-working' turned out to be ex-gang member relocated from Calgary to Fraser Valley

Local acquaintances who knew Yee Hung Chin as Jason say he was a wonderful person, but his past in notorious FOB gang came back to haunt him

Note: This is a version of a story that appeared online on July 25, 2017 – Paul Henderson, Sept. 29, 2025

According to people in Chilliwack who knew the man who went by Jason Chin, he was kind and polite, a good listener with zero ego.

Chin volunteered, went to church, rode a motorcycle, and was a personal trainer.

“He was a good guy whose message was to make the most of each day and to pay it forward,” according to an acquaintance who asked not to be named.

“I knew the guy who worked hard, was a fantastic personal trainer, a good friend and shining example of living your best life every day.”

But Jason was not Jason and whether he was hiding his past for nefarious reasons or because he truly wanted to start over may never be known.

Yee Hung Chin, 33, who went by Roland, was a prominent member of the FOB gang in Calgary, which was involved in a deadly war with a rival gang that saw 25 killed since 2002.

Chin lived in Chilliwack for about a year until he was killed in a targeted shooting at Kal Tire on Progress Way at 9 a.m. on July 21.

When Chilliwack RCMP arrived at the scene just after 9 a.m., they located Chin suffering from gunshot wounds in or near a customer’s Audi. Chin was transported to hospital but succumbed to his injuries.

A black minivan used as a getaway vehicle was later torched on the dike next to the Vedder Canal.

Three bullet holes were visible in the driver’s-side passenger door of the a Audi parked in front of the business. Police were examining the car closely and interviewing employees that morning. His death was quickly deemed a homicide and IHIT was called in.

IHIT released two videos of the alleged incident. The first was a security video taken from across the street that shows a black minivan pull up to near the Audi. There is no audio, but one man is seen getting out and quickly getting back into the van, which then pulls away. The second video showed the minivan near the Vedder Canal driving towards the Highway 1 bridge followed by the white sedan.

Ending a life of crime

Before coming to town, Chin spent much of the last decade behind bars. Just before moving to Chilliwack, he was released after serving some portion of a seven-year sentence for possession of a loaded weapon.

And that term came about a year after serving a five-year sentence for weapons and drug charges. He was arrested with his brother Roger in 2006 in a Calgary motel room. The two were found with a .45-calibre semiautomatic pistol, a bulletproof vest, $3,800 in cash, ammunition, four cellphones and 15 grams of crack cocaine.

In affirming the original sentence in that file, the Alberta Court of Appeal sent a message about the use of loaded guns in the drug trade.

“Sadly, shootings resulting in serious injuries and deaths are now all too common,” the panel said. “Drugs, and money to be made from drug trafficking, are often at the root of such conflicts.”

In between his arrest in 2006 and that appeal court ruling in 2009, Chin’s brother Roger was murdered in a hail of bullets in 2008.

The brothers were part of the FOB gang, which began as a small-scale dial-a-dope operation run by Asian teenagers. The FOB was a reclamation of the immigrant slur “Fresh Off the Boat.” But FOB later came to stand for “Forever Our Brothers,” and even “Fresh Out of Bullets.”

“Initial animosity between the two groups resulted in fights and the use of weapons such as machetes, bats and knives. This has escalated over the years to include firearms including automatic weapons. As a result, several homicides have occurred between the two groups since 2002.”

That according to acting Staff Sgt. Gord Eiriksson in an affidavit used in court during proceedings in Alberta.

“'Fresh Off the Boat' is not the only term used when describing graffiti, art and even memorial baseball caps have demonstrated that can mean 'Fresh Out of Bullets' or 'Forever Our Brother.' Most commonly, police and those associated to this group, simply refer to it as 'FOB.'”

Reports out of Calgary in the 2000s said that as the gang grew there was a rift that led to the creation of a rival gang, the FOB Killers, or simply, FK. The battle between the two gangs saw more than two dozen killed.

In 2012 the then 29-year-old Chin was sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing a loaded handgun found in his vehicle.

“You’re only 29, I do not consider you to be a lifetime criminal,” provincial court Judge Sharon Van de Veen is quoted as saying to Chin in a Dec. 7, 2012 Calgary Herald article. “Decide for yourself, at 29 years, to look at the rest of your life.”

“I’ll take something positive from this sentence,” Chin replied before being led away by sheriffs.

Some time in 2016, he was released from prison and relocated to Chilliwack where he lived in relative peace until he was murdered.

FK ties to UN gang

The Calgary Herald reported in the week following Chin’s murder in Chilliwack that several individuals with FK connections are alleged to have ties with the Fraser Valley-based United Nations (UN) gang. Apparently FK members Bill Ly and Troy Tran were named as co-conspirators with the alleged UN plot to murder the Bacon brothers.

As for those who knew Chin in Chilliwack, they said they were numb and in shock in hearing about the death.

“There was absolutely nothing gang member about him, that’s what was so shocking when this happened,” said an acquaintance.

What those who knew him locally did know is that he was “starting over” from something, but they didn’t know what.

“I think he lived with this inevitability every day and was trying to have a positive influence on the people around him while he could.

“I think he showed incredible courage to not live in the shadows given what happened but to be out in the light working his day job, riding his bike, going to church (which is here in Chilliwack), working out, training others and volunteering.

“I am so grateful I knew him because in the short few months that we knew each other, he had a profound influence on my life and even moreso now. I want to pay it forward by being less judgmental, kinder, more grateful, to work harder and the funny thing is, I think everyone here who knew him feels the same.”

Soon after the shooting, IHIT asked for the public’s assistance in a search for witnesses that may have seen the shooting, the arson of the suspect vehicle, and the flight of suspects from the scene of the arson.

The details of the timeline, according to IHIT, is that at 8:56 a.m. the shooting occurred and six minutes later the suspect Dodge Caravan was set on fire under the Highway 1 bridge over the Vedder Canal.

A white sedan and a dark sedan then were seen fleeing in tandem from the site of the burning vehicle.

“While the motive for this homicide has yet to be determined, the investigation to date has yielded evidence to say that Mr. Chin’s murder was not random,” IHIT spokesperson Cpl. Meghan Foster said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the IHIT Information Line at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448), by email at ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca or, to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

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Paul J. Henderson
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