The man gunned down on a Vancouver street late Tuesday night was convicted last year of the attempted murder of a man who had testified against his brother.

Rajinder Singh Soomel, 35, of Surrey, B.C., was shot dead at about 10:20 p.m. Tuesday on Cambie Street at West 19th Avenue. He had recently been paroled, his lawyer confirmed to ctvbc.ca Wednesday night.

Soomel's killing -- Vancouver's 18th homicide of the year -- does not appear to have been a random attack, police said.

Soomel was sentenced to three years in prison in March 2008 after pleading guilty to attempting to murder Hardip Uppal.

Uppal was a witness in a trial against Soomel's younger brother, who is a convicted murderer, court documents show.

Uppal had also been helping police investigate the 1998 killing of Tara Singh Hayer, an outspoken Indo-Canadian newspaper publisher.

According to B.C. provincial court Judge Peder Gulbransen's sentencing remarks posted on the Attorney General of B.C. website, Soomel wanted [Uppal] "taken care of in a particularly ugly and violent way, to send a message."

"What he did was he counseled and gave instructions to someone he thought could actually do the job to deliberately take the life of another human being. He believed it was going to happen."

At the same time, Soomel was an "accomplished man," the judge wrote. "He's almost got a university degree. He is highly intelligent. He is a good artist."

The judge also noted that Soomel, who had no previous criminal record, was shot in his home in 2000 when someone broke in looking for his brother.

Soomel had been working hard as a truck driver to support his family, which was in "serious financial trouble" because of costs associated with his brother's defence, the judge wrote.

Soomel's lawyer, Michael Bolton, told ctvbc.ca Wednesday night that he was very saddened to hear about Soomel's death, but declined to comment further.

Witnesses to Tuesday night's street killing told CTV News they heard multiple shots and screeching tires.

Tanya Marshall, who lives nearby, said she heard what appeared to be five or six gunshots. "I thought they were firecrackers at the schoolyard, but I noticed they were exceptionally loud," she said. "It's quite startling."

"A couple guys in hoodies ran away and scampered off on some roof," one man said.

Anyone with information is asked to call homicide investigators with the Vancouver Police Department at 604-717-2500.