A young man gunned down in the parking lot of Yorkdale Shopping Centre had alleged gang ties and a lengthy criminal past, including an armed home invasion in Windsor in 2005.

Michael Nguyen, 23, was shot in the mall’s west parking lot just after 8 p.m. Saturday, following what police believe was an altercation between two groups that spilled out of the mall onto the asphalt. Another 24-year-old man who has not been identified was shot but was listed in stable condition.

Multiple suspects are still being sought investigators continue to review surveillance footage, police said Monday.

Nguyen, a longtime resident of Alexandra Park, bordering Chinatown’s main drag at Spadina Ave. and Dundas St., has a history of criminal convictions including armed robbery and ties to the Asian Assassinz gang, according to a former lawyer, a community worker and court documents.

Police have previously alleged Nguyen was part of the Asian Assassinz gang, which originated in Alexandra Park with four members, and was believed responsible for acts of vandalism and robbery, court records show.

After a 2005 armed invasion of a middle-class Windsor bungalow where two occupants — a woman and her live-in boyfriend, both in their 20s — were held at gunpoint, Nguyen, who was 16 at the time, and three others were convicted of breaking and entering, armed robbery and forcible confinement.

Nguyen’s former lawyer, Frank Miller, said Toronto police gave evidence at the sentencing hearing, alleging that all three youth — Nguyen, Qoheleth Chong and Rowan Atkins — were connected, along with their adult accomplice, Terry Nguyen (no relation), to the Toronto gang. All were sentenced as adults, allowing them to be named.

“These guys were not four young kids who met up in a subway station that day,” Miller said. “It was planned and it was very well planned.”

Last November, Chong was killed in the early hours near College and Lippincott Sts. Police found him with a gunshot wound to the neck. He later died in hospital. He was also 23.

Donna Harrow, director of the African Canadian Coalition of Community Organizations, said Nguyen and Chong were childhood friends who both attended Ryerson Community School. “They were kids in the neighbourhood,” she said.

Nguyen “was one of the, sort of, kids in the background. He wasn’t involved in a lot of programming or whatever through the centre,” Harrow said, referring to the Alexandra Park Community Centre, where she works.

Homicide Det. Rob North said that in the early days of the investigation it would be “premature” to say whether what happened in Windsor is at all connected to Nguyen’s murder.

“We’re going to explore every avenue we can in this investigation,” he said.