The suspect in the shooting of a Transit Police officer in Surrey was once a promising boxer with aspirations of competing in the Olympics.
As a teenager, Daon Glasgow won a national junior boxing championship after just 10 competitive bouts.
In a 1998 interview with Global News, a 14-year-old Glasgow said he was headed to compete in a Junior Olympic tournament in Tijuana, Mexico and had his sights set on qualifying for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
WATCH: New details about SkyTrain shooting suspect Daon Glasgow
His coach at Halifax’s Citadel Boxing Club told Global News at the time that Glasgow was a gifted athlete who was using the sport to turn his life around.
“He now has something positive to work on,” Wayne Davis said.
“He was 14, hanging out on the streets, and not really having anything to focus on, anything to pursue. It was affecting his home life, it affected his school life. He ended up getting in trouble with the law. But now that he’s been boxing I think he’s just going to be a fine individual, an upstanding citizen for our community.
Get breaking National news
Glasgow said the sport helped instill discipline in him.
- Several Toronto police officers arrested in organized crime investigation
- Toronto police chief rips officers accused of corruption. Here’s what he said
- Toronto officers allegedly leaked info to criminals who carried out shootings: investigators
- Manitoba RCMP issue dangerous person alert after woman’s abduction
WATCH: Daon Glasgow’s former boxing coach speaks about promising student
“I’m better in school,” a young Glasgow said. “Before I came here, my marks were pretty low. Now that I’ve been in boxing, my marks are going up.”
Wayne Gordon, current head coach of the Citadel Boxing Club, told Global News on Monday that he remembers Glasgow as a kid with a “great smile” and tremendous potential.
“He picked up the skills really easily but sometimes when things come to people easily they don’t take advantage of it,” he said.
WATCH: Police release eight different mugshots of suspect in transit cop shooting
“He went on to win a national title and he did very well that one year and then the pull of the streets was a bigger influence on him than what the boxing program could have done for him.”
He suspects the “influence of his peers” lured Glasgow away from the sport.
“That happens a lot,” he said. “Kids will come into a sport and have some kind of success, but then they’ll get a girlfriend or something will happen and boom, they’re gone.”
Gordon said he was saddened to hear about the direction Glasgow’s life has taken.
Glasgow is suspected of shooting Vancouver Transit Police Const. Josh Harms on the Scott Road SkyTrain platform Wednesday afternoon. He was taken into custody on Sunday after a Canada-wide warrant was issued.
No charges have been laid.
Glasgow pleaded guilty in 2011 to manslaughter for fatally shooting a man inside a McDonald’s restaurant at Scott Road and 110 Avenue in 2010.
He was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison for that crime, minus a year for time served. In 2015 the B.C. Court of Appeal reduced that sentence to 8.5 years, granting him time-and-a-half credit for time served prior to trial.
He was granted statutory release in October 2018 under a number of conditions, including avoiding drugs and people with criminal histories.
— With files from Emily Lazatin, Sean Boynton, Simon Little and The Canadian Press
Comments