Nephew of former well-known Chilliwack businessman on trial for first-degree murder in alleged Vancouver gang killing

Rylee Shipley faces life in prison – uncle Ted Shipley once called ‘an idiot’ by provincial court judge after handgun waving incident outside nightclub

He is described in news stories as a Langley resident, he spent time and was arrested in Calgary, but it turns out a man on trial this week for first-degree murder and attempted murder with a firearm in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver has Chilliwack roots through and through.

Rylee Andrew Shipley, 27, started day seven of a scheduled nine-day trial Tuesday (Feb. 10, 2026) charged with killing a man in an alleged gang-related attack on July 26, 2024.

An incident purporting to be the shooting was caught on video shared on X/Twitter showing an individual firing what appeared to be an automatic weapon at a black SUV in a driveway as the vehicle races away nearly hitting the shooter.

The shooting was before 9 p.m. that day, shortly after which officers were called to East 63rd in the Sunset neighbourhood of South Vancouver responding to a report that two men in a vehicle had been shot. That later crashed into several other vehicles not involved in the criminal altercation. One man in that vehicle was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries while the second man, Hitkaran Johal, 25, died at the scene of the collision.

Then, following the standard gang assassination script, a vehicle was set on fire near East 63rd and Prince Edward Street. 

Soon after, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) Major Crime Section investigators identified the suspect as Shipley. On Aug. 21, 2024, Shipley was arrested in Alberta with “significant assistance” from the Calgary Police Service and the Alberta RCMP, according to a VPD statement.

The BC Prosecution Service then approved one count each of first-degree murder, attempted murder with a firearm, and aggravated assault against the 27-year-old Shipley who spent at least some time growing up in Chilliwack and attended Chilliwack Secondary School.

When Shipley was just 18 he was convicted in connection with a robbery crime spree across southern B.C. from Nelson to Chilliwack along with co-accused Colton Emery Knowles, also born in 1996. The two were convicted of three counts each of robbery, three counts of using an imitation firearm to commit an indictable offence, in Kamloops, Chilliwack, and Grand Forks, all with an offence date of Sept. 6, 2015. They were also convicted of flight from police and possession of a restricted firearm in Grand Forks. They received multiple sentences for the offences, the longest of which was 19 months each for the robberies.

Shipley was also listed as wanted in a CrimeStoppers newspaper ad in January 2022. The then 25-year-old was listed as 5'6" and 100 pounds.

Rylee Shipley’s murder trial is scheduled to wrap up on Thursday (Feb. 12, 2026).

Elder Shipley’s decades in the news

Rylee Shipley is nephew of longtime local businessman Edwin “Ted” Shipley who was in local news for three very different reasons between 1990 and 2013.

Ted Shipley was first known for running entertainment promotions company Noteable Entertainment involved in a financially suspect country music festival, then as the CEO for a period of time of TeksMed Services pushing a high-end private medical clinic that never came to be. All that was before his trash-talkling gun-waving incident at a Chilliwack nightclub.

Back in 1990, the 20-something Shipley and his Noteable Entertainment was in the news after the three-day Chilliwack Country Music Festival that attracted more than 30,000 people became a financial boondoggle. Suppliers to the event were having bills unpaid and cheques bounce. In the Sept. 26, 1990 edition of The Progress, the late local journalist Robert Freeman reported the event lost more than $543,000 according to the festival’s producer. Shipley, however, called the financial statements “pure fantasy.” Those statements showed 8,000 paid customers attended, far fewer than Shipley’s claim of 30,000 prompting him to say either one number is wrong or “somebody walked away with a whole bunch of cash.”

In 2008 as CEO of TeksMed, Shipley pushed plans for a private medical clinic to bring “executive level” clients to Chilliwack for what he called “destination health care,” putting them up in hotels with opportunities to golf or go fishing to get “the whole Chilliwack flavour,” as reported by Freeman on July 15, 2008. Shipley bragged that the clinic, which never opened, would have been a first for Canada. He had aspirations of opening similar versions in Calgary and Toronto.

Shipley's name was also in the paper often for his charitable donations, for example his sponsorship of a golf tournament and donations to Chilliwack Community Services.

Fast forward to 2013, when a drunk Shipley pulled a gun on bouncers at the Echo Room nightclub on Main Street in Chilliwack in the early hours of May 22. He and another man, Kevin Douthwright, were denied entry by bouncers Greg Wilhite and Clayton Charlie.

Shipley pulled out a gun, pointed it at the bouncers and said: “Do you know who the fuck we are?”

Shipley’s high-profile lawyer John Conroy did a good job convincing Judge Roger Cutler that Shipley was an “excellent contributor” to the community who had some hardships leading up to the incident and he deserved a conditional discharge, which Cutler agreed to. This story was only covered by this reporter in the Chilliwack Times.

As for Douthwright who only met Shipley that night and who was only charged with holding the gun when police showed up, he faced a different judge who was unsympathetic to the request for a conditional discharge. But when Judge Ronald Caryer found out his brother Judge Cutler gave the man who brought and pointed the gun a conditional discharge, he called that “interesting.” 

Crown counsel Paul Blessin replied that Shipley’s lawyer Conroy “did his job very well that day.”

Reluctantly agreeing to defence lawyer Jayse Reveley’s request for a conditional discharge, Judge Caryer told Douthwright what he thought of Shipley and gave the younger man some advice.

“He’s an idiot,” Caryer said. “You should steer clear of idiots.”

Full story from the Oct. 23, 2014, Chilliwack Times, about Ted. Shipley's gun-waving incident in Chilliwack

Judge: ‘Steer clear of idiots’

Happenstance meeting turned out to be an evening of poor choices

By Paul J. Henderson

The young man left holding the gun after prominent Chilliwack businessman Ted Shipley waved it at nightclub bouncers was issued stern advice by the judge who let him off the hook last week.

Kevin Douthwright faced three weapons charges in connection with the 2013 incident at the Echo Room. He pleaded guilty to one firearm possession charge.

“He’s an idiot,” Judge Ronald Caryer said of Douthwright’s co-accused Shipley.

“You should steer clear of idiots.”

The 54-year-old Shipley pleaded guilty in early September in Chilliwack Court to pointing a firearm. Charges of resisting arrest and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose were dismissed by the Crown.

Shipley was given a conditional discharge by Judge Roger Cutler after argument in his defence by prominent criminal attorney John Conroy.

It was near closing time in the early hours of May 22, 2013 when Shipley and Douthwright showed up at the door of the Echo Room. Visibly intoxicated, Shipley and Douthwright were denied entry by the two bouncers, Greg Wilhite and Clayton Charlie.

That’s when Shipley pulled out the handgun, pointed it at the bouncers and said to the bouncers: “Do you know who the f— we are?”

In both the Shipley and the Douthwright case, Crown counsel Paul Blessin sought a conditional sentence. For Shipley, Blessin asked four to six months. Conroy argued that Shipley had personal hardships leading up to the incident, he was so drunk he didn’t remember it, and since he is an “excellent contributor” to the local community, a discharge was warranted.

Cutler agreed, calling the incident one of “simple drunken tomfoolery,” and gave Shipley a conditional discharge.

As for Douthwright, who apparently only met Shipley that evening, Blessin asked for a 60-day conditional sentence, a curfew, one-year probation, a five-year firearm prohibtion and a DNA order.

Despite the fact that Shipley was the one who brandished the gun, and Douthwright was charged only as the man holding the gun when the police showed up, Caryer was less than sympathetic to the conditional discharge argument.

He did seem surprised when he learned of how Cutler sentenced Shipley.

“Well that’s interesting,” Caryer said, of the conditional discharge given to the man who brought the gun to the bar.

“It’s fair to say Mr. Conroy did his job very well that day,” Blessin replied.

Caryer then told Douthwright that what he did was serious and wrong, and that he should have backed away when Shipley pulled the gun.

The judge pointed to the fact that the young man had no criminal record and had three “glowing” letters of support from family and friends.

“This is not America,” Caryer admonished Douthwright. “We are an anti-gun society, generally. When people pull out guns in bars, bad things happen.”

Caryer then agreed to defence lawyer Jayse Reveley’s request for a conditional discharge. Douthwright was also handed one year of probation and ordered to pay a $250 victim surcharge by March 2016.

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Paul J. Henderson
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