2 inmates charged in B.C. jail escape attempt, including hitman linked to Little Italy murder

Criminal charges have been approved against two inmates accused of attempting to break out of the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, including a man long linked to one of Toronto’s most notorious gangland killings.

Surrey Police Service (SPS) says the charges stem from a Dec. 7, 2025, incident, when correctional officers spotted what they described as an escape attempt unfolding inside an exercise yard within the facility’s secure perimeter. Officers intervened and apprehended the men before they could get beyond the yard, police said.

The SPS Prolific Offender Team took over the investigation, and on Tuesday, B.C. Prosecution Services approved two charges each for 40‑year‑old Dean Wiwchar and 34‑year‑old Harry Christensen.

Both men are charged with attempting to break out of prison with the intent to escape and attempting to escape lawful custody. Police say both remain behind bars serving their original sentences while awaiting further court appearances.

Christensen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in March 2025 in the 2018 killing of a B.C. man.

Wiwchar’s violent past draws renewed attention

Wiwchar’s name is well known to investigators across the country. The Stouffville, Ont., native was convicted in connection with the 2012 Little Italy café shooting that killed John Raposo — a brazen, daylight hit carried out during a Euro Cup soccer viewing party.

At the time, police described Wiwchar as a hired gun brought in to carry out the assassination, a killing prosecutors later argued was ordered amid a dispute within the Hells Angels criminal network. Court documents from that case detailed Wiwchar’s history of violence, his access to weapons, and his willingness to carry out contract killings.

Wiwchar was also closely associated with Rabih “Robby” Alkhalil, a B.C. gangster who became one of Canada’s most wanted fugitives after escaping from a Port Coquitlam jail in 2022.

Alkhalil, who was later arrested in Qatar in 2025, was convicted of orchestrating the Raposo murder and was described by prosecutors as the mastermind behind the plot. Wiwchar was the triggerman. Nicola Nero and Martino Caputo were also charged with — and ultimately convicted of — first‑degree murder for planning the hit on Raposo.