Hearing begins into Sals shooting

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This article was published 14/06/2014 (4302 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A preliminary hearing began Friday for a man accused in a brazen shooting at a Salisbury House restaurant that killed Jeffrey Lau and seriously wounded another man.

Devin Hall, 27, is charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 27, 2012 shooting at the Sals near Pembina Highway and Stafford Street.

A gunman shot two men inside the restaurant at about 3 a.m. Both were rushed to hospital. Lau, 23, later died.

A handgun was found on the street at Hector Avenue and Stafford Street, several blocks from the restaurant.

Hall wasn’t arrested until February 2013.

He also faces attempted-murder and weapons-related allegations. Hall is presumed innocent.

After the preliminary hearing — which is under a publication ban — the judge will decide whether there’s enough evidence to send the case to trial.

If convicted, Hall faces a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Lau’s mother, Cathie Lau, has told the Free Press she believes her son was first marked for death in July 2012 when he and another friend — one who would also be with him the night he was killed — were run down by a hit-and-run driver in the parking lot of an Osborne Village hotel.

Lau suffered head and hand injuries in that attack.

Court records show Hall was convicted of a drug offence last fall and handed a three-year prison term.