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Date Posted: 12:45:22 01/05/04 Mon
Author: detoured
Subject: William B. Davis's (CSM) daughter killed

I just got this off a mailing list:


http://www.canada.com/national/story.asp?id=2C4A3CD7-355B-474D-8C57-589D7E2=FA 045

Daughter of TV's 'Smoking Man' killed trying to break up fight Rachel Davis always helped those in trouble, friend says

Amy O'Brian
Vancouver Sun
Rachel Davis, 23, was shot and killed Saturday outside the Purple Onion Cabaret.
When 23-year-old Rachel Davis died in a hail of bullets in Gastown early Saturday, she was just trying to help break up a fight, say her friends.

But her friends and parents, who described her as a peacemaker who would often intervene in disputes, made it clear Sunday they're not interested in vengeance and they don't believe the fight was racially motivated.
"[Rachel] was just trying to help someone she didn't even know, but the situation couldn't have gone any more wrong," said Steve Denham, a close friend to both Rachel and her boyfriend, who was also shot but has been released from hospital.

"What matters to me is that [Rachel] is remembered. I would like to have a finger of blame to point, but that's not the main issue for most of us."

Davis and an Asian man in his early 20s were killed and four other people were wounded in the incident outside The Purple Onion Cabaret in Gastown.

Rachel Davis was the daughter of well-known Vancouver actors Janet Wright and William B. Davis, who portrayed 'Smoking Man' on the long-running television series X-Files.

It was just after 4 a.m. Saturday and the bar had just closed for the night when Rachel and some friends saw a fight erupt on the brick sidewalk outside the nightclub.

Five men were fighting with a young man in front of Rachel and her friends, and when it became apparent that the lone man was in serious danger, Rachel's group intervened, said Denham, who was not at the incident himself but heard the story from several of those who were there.

Once the group of five had backed off, the man who had been beaten pushed himself up from the cold sidewalk, pulled out a gun and started shooting, Denham said. The spray of bullets hit six people, killing two and injuring four.

Rachel and her friends were not acquainted with those involved in the initial fight, said Denham and Char Hunter, another friend of Rachel's.
Denham stressed that Rachel's friends don't believe ethnicity was an issue. "I don't know for a fact if race was an issue but I'd like to think it wasn't."
Vancouver police Constable Sarah Bloor would not confirm the identities of the victims on Sunday, saying they would be released today.

She said one of the dead was an Asian male, but added there is "no ethnicity or race issue that [the police department] is trying to play up."
Three of the four people injured were still in hospital Sunday. Two of the victims were in stable condition and one was in serious condition.
Bloor said investigators are looking for two Indo-Canadian suspects and the weapon or weapons that were used.

"Unfortunately, we had very limited descriptions of the suspects. As far as being two Indo-Canadian males, that's all we had and we're still pretty much at that stage," Bloor said.
Although police and managers of the Purple Onion say the fight did not start in the nightclub, Bloor said everyone involved in the fight was in the club at some point during the night.

"We believe all parties, at one point, were in the Purple Onion, but the Purple Onion is not where the argument or any pre-behaviour prior to the argument took place," she said. "They were just out at a nightclub and the argument itself took place out on the street."
On Sunday morning, police had taped off the entrance to the club and Bloor said investigators and the forensic team were looking for evidence.

Aside from the yellow tape, the only other sign of the fatal shooting that took place 18 hours earlier was a small bouquet of flowers duct-taped to the facade of the bar.
Reached by phone Sunday afternoon, Rachel Davis's parents were shaken, but willing to talk about their "courageous" daughter.

"What can I say? She's one of the most courageous, loyal and loving young women that almost anybody who knows her has ever known," Bruce Davis said.
"She just couldn't stand people being badly treated like that and had no qualms about going into a fight and it always worked, until now."
Rachel's parents said their daughter has been a peacekeeper all her life, intervening in fights and trying to mediate arguments.

While they are clearly devastated by her death, they are finding some solace in knowing she was trying to help improve a situation.
"The way she died was awful, but at least it was in the spirit of her courage and character," Bruce Davis said.

Recently, Rachel had been a waitress at the Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe on Cambie Street and was planning to go back to school either this spring or summer to study psychology.
"She had finally mapped out her life," Bruce Davis said.

Rachel was very close to her family and had "hundreds of friends," mostly in the skateboarding community, her father said.
Rachel's mother, Janet Wright, said she was grateful her daughter was able to spend the holidays with her family.
"The blessing is that we have this close family, we had a great Christmas, and I talked to her the night before," Wright said.

Rachel's parents say they bear no ill-will toward the people involved in the fight that killed their daughter, but want her to be fondly remembered.
"We're not interested in vengeance, in 'whodunnit' at this point. We just want to make sure that her soul's been properly captured, because she had lots of it," her father said.

"How can I have ill will toward a bunch of people who were probably drunk?" Janet Wright added.
Police have not yet determined whether the people involved in the fight were intoxicated, and Bloor said she could not comment on whether it was a drug- or gang-related argument.

However, the vice chair of Barwatch, a group of local bar and club owners who work with police, fire and licensing agencies on safety initiatives, said he believes the shooting was gang-related.
Vance Campbell said the Purple Onion Cabaret is not a member of Barwatch and has been on the group's "radar screen" for a while.

The Purple Onion is just a few metres from Loft Six -- where three
people were killed by gunfire in August.
"Both [The Purple Onion and Loft Six] have been on our radar screens for some time as places that have had visits from organized gangs and the kinds of people that wouldn't get into our Barwatch bars, for example."

Both the August shooting and Saturday's shooting happened within minutes of 4 a.m., which became the weekend closing time for many downtown bars during the summer and was extended into the fall and winter.

Campbell is adamant the shootings aren't related to the later bar closings, blaming instead the gang presence in this city.

"Shootings happen at all times of the day and night and I think it has more to do with the fact that there's a problem with organized gangs in this city, specifically Indo-Canadian and Asian gangs," he said.

Aaron Folk, a Gastown resident, didn't pinpoint ethnic tensions as a reason for the recent violence in the neighbourhood, but said the later bar closings and a lack of police presence are causing problems.
"It's like a ghost-town down here at 3 a.m.," he said. "There's not enough police patrol down here. . . This would never happen on Granville."

The Purple Onion is owned by Steve Beaton, Chris Gittins, Steve Luczenczyn and Jay Middagh.
Middagh and Gittins live in Winnipeg, Beaton lives in Surrey and Luczenczyn lives in Vancouver.
Luczenczyn said he is not sure when he was last in his bar during operating hours, but said he and the three other owners have absolute confidence in the bar's management.
"We run a clean show," he said. "Gastown has been tough lately."
Middagh said from Winnipeg that "we make a point of keeping out gang-related people."

Although the Purple Onion once had hand-held metal detectors, it now screens patrons with a "pat down," said general manager Ken Svazas.
"Everybody gets checked," he said. "I would say more so than other bars."

Police have questioned 16 witnesses and the staff at the nightclub, but are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call
(604) 717-2500, or CrimeStoppers.

© Copyright 2004 Vancouver Sun

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