By The Canadian Press

Police say hit man and fellow murderer caught trying to flee B.C. prison

Jan 29, 2026 | 12:58 PM

SURREY — Two murderers including gangland hit man Dean Wiwchar have been charged with attempting to escape from a British Columbia pretrial centre last month.

The Surrey Police Service says in a news release that correctional officers observed the men attempting to escape from the exercise yard at Surrey Pretrial Services Centre on Dec. 7.

It says 40-year-old Wiwchar and 34-year-old Harry Christensen were both charged on Tuesday and remain in custody serving their original sentences as they await new court dates.

Wiwchar was one of four men convicted of first-degree murder and handed a life sentence for arranging a brazen daytime shooting at a Toronto café in 2012 as part of a feud among drug traffickers.

Prosecutors in the trial accused Wiwchar of actually carrying out the killing of John Raposo, who was shot on the patio of the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe, as soccer fans gathered to watch a Euro Cup game. The men were also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.

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Wiwchar also pleaded guilty last year to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder in relation to the killing of a man in the lobby of Vancouver’s Sheraton Wall Centre in 2012 and a plot to kill a second man.

The BC Prosecution Service confirmed he was sentenced on Dec. 5 to 20 years and 18 years concurrently for the B.C. crimes, but was not given credit for pre-sentence custody “as that time has already been accounted for by various other convictions.” The court also imposed a lifetime firearms ban, a DNA order, a no-contact order and a forfeiture order.

Last March, Christensen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of a man in Chilliwack in 2018.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Warren B. Milman’s oral reasons for sentencing said Christensen used a hand gun to shoot Kyle Cromarty twice from behind “execution-style” in public on the afternoon of Oct. 4, 2018. One of the shots proved to be fatal.

The document said Christensen intended to kill Cromarty, but noted he did not know his attacker.

The document said Christensen evaded capture for about four years and was only apprehended because traces of his DNA were found on the murder weapon.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility to apply for parole for 13 and a half years.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan, 29, 2026.

The Canadian Press