By KIM BOLAN , VANCOUVER SUN

VANCOUVER - Vancouver’s latest homicide victim was a trucker just paroled after a conviction for plotting to kill a witness in the murder of publisher Tara Singh Hayer.

Rajinder Singh Soomel, 35, was living in a Vancouver halfway house when he was gunned down in the middle of Cambie Street at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Soomel’s younger brother Robbie was convicted in a gangland slaying in 2004 and is serving a life sentence. During his murder trial, Robbie was implicated by a co-accused in the assassination of Hayer, even though he has never been charged.

The elder Soomel later plotted against that witness — Hardip Singh Uppal — telling an undercover police officer that he wanted to kill the “rat” who helped convict his brother in one murder and implicated him in others.

In March 2008, Raj Soomel pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Uppal and was handed a four-year sentence. He was eligible for day parole last July 28.

When Surrey Provincial Court Judge Peder Gulbransen sentenced Raj Soomel last year, he said the trucker made a “cold, deliberate calculated decision to have someone killed.”

Vancouver police are now saying that someone made the same decision to kill Soomel — the city’s 18th homicide victim of 2009.