A B.C. man who drunkenly fired a gun into a karaoke bar when he was asked to leave his own birthday party has been sentenced to 17 more months in jail.
Sae Kwan Lee was celebrating his birthday at Plus Karaoke Bar in Coquitlam on Nov. 12, 2006, when he was asked to leave.
"Mr. Lee, who was apparently angry for being asked to leave and while fuelled by alcohol it seems, discharged a firearm several times into the front entryway of the club," Judge David St. Pierre wrote in his sentencing decision.
Two people were injured by flying shrapnel from the gunshots, but "somebody could have easily died," St. Pierre said.
Lee wasn't formally charged in the shooting until three years later, when Brian Lim, the owner of another karaoke bar in Surrey, told police that Lee had confessed the shooting to him.
"He [talked] about it to Mr. Lim in a way that does not indicate a remorseful attitude, that is for sure," St. Pierre wrote.
During his testimony at Port Coquitlam provincial court, Lim showed "palpable fear" when he talked about Lee, the judge wrote.
Lim testified that he learned about the shooting when Lee visited his bar to demand that he install credit-card skimmers so that he could steal customers' banking information. Lee told Lim that he needed to install the skimmers or pay $10,000.
However, Lee had no previous criminal record before pleading guilty in the karaoke-bar shooting.
St. Pierre wrote that the "reckless nature" of the shooting -- as well as the fact that Lee "essentially bragg[ed] about it" later – were aggravating factors in the crime.
The judge ruled that Lee should serve 30 months in jail but gave him credit for 13 months already served.
Plus Karaoke Bar was also the scene of multiple stabbings in July 2010 when two groups got into a fight in the parking lot. At least three people were stabbed when one of the brawlers pulled out a knife.
