The nephew of the gangster gunned down the night of his engagement party says his family knew about Ricardo Scarpino's dark side, but looked the other way.

Instead, 28-year-old Ryan says he learned a lot from his uncle and is devastated after losing a man who leaves behind a distraught fianc�e and a two-year-old child.

"I always knew my uncle was doing something, somewhere. But we understood that it was none of my business. He never brought it up, we never asked," Ryan told CTV News on Monday.

Scarpino was one of two people shot dead Saturday night, when his black Range Rover pulled up to Gotham Steakhouse and Cocktail Bar and was attacked by two gunmen.

Police are still searching for the two gunmen, who fled across Seymour Street, tossing a gun in a church lot.

Ryan, who didn't want his last name used, said he wished he had seen his uncle since he got out of prison just last week.

"He was like a father to me. He never judged me," said Ryan. "I loved my uncle Ricardo and I'm devastated," he said, adding that he has spoken to Scarpino's grieving fianc�e and the mother of his two-year-old child.

"He chose a lifestyle he chose and we all knew as a family that that kind of lifestyle catches up to you," he said. "But no one deserves to die."

One man attending the party, 37-year-old Lawrence Brinley Wilson, was charged with weapons offenses and a gun charge after police say a gun dropped from his belt that night.

New details about gangster's high life

New details are emerging about Scarpino, who had been in and out of jail in a criminal career that spanned more than 14 years. Many of the charges were possession of Scarpino's weapon of choice - a 9-mm Luger handgun.

Scarpino lived in a fortified house in West Vancouver, with heavy video surveillance, owned by Stargate actor Douglas Christopher Judge. Judge refused to talk to CTV reporters at the scene.

Court filings say that Scarpino was poker player who carried large sums of cash for his poker games -- in the range of $50,000 to $100,000.

After he was followed from Richmond Centre and robbed at gunpoint from his Mercedes in 2005, he sued his insurance company for refusing to replace the money. Scarpino's filing even said he called police when he was robbed.

In 1993, Scarpino admitted to shooting and killing another man in a crowded mall near Los Angeles.

Top-secret new evidence led to Scarpino's acquittal

In 1998, Scarpino was one of several people convicted in a cocaine-trafficking ring. But in 2001, his appeal was allowed and the prosecution dropped the charges.

Lawyer Dale Marshall, who represented one co-accused in the trial, said his client was let off because the prosecution had new evidence.

But the prosecutors wouldn't tell him what the evidence was, he said, adding that such confidential acquittals are rare.

"I've heard of it. But it's the first time in 20 years that it's happened to my client," he told CTV News.

A spokesman for the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force said Scarpino was not a member of a known gang.

But Sergeant Shinder Kirk says affiliations between the criminal element in Metro Vancouver are very fluid with members acting as a group one day and fighting to the death the next.

Ryan said his family would miss Ricardo.

"He was the best uncle ever. He was the kind of uncle that when I was a kid, he'd give the coolest Christmas presents, he'd take me out to dinner, he would always give me a couple of bucks," he said. "He was always so generous and so kind."

With files from The Canadian Press and a report from CTV's Lisa Rossington