June 15 will mark the second anniversary of the Stanley Cup riot that saw public disorder, looting and millions of dollars in damage.
In the months following the riot, Vancouver police issued a series of charges against suspected rioters, dedicating a special website and a series of posters to singling out the suspects. But they also took a lot of heat for their slow response to the riot and the speed of the ensuing riot investigation.
Two years after the riot, charges have been approved against 229 people while 56 accused rioters are still waiting to learn if they’ll be charged.
Police have recommended charges against a total of 325 people and trials are currently scheduled for 15 people.
To date, 149 people suspected of participating in the riot have entered guilty pleas and 102 of them have received sentences ranging from discharges to more than a year in jail.
In February of last year, the first rioter to plead guilty received a 17-month jail sentence.
The riot led to a number of high profile court cases, including those of accused rioters Camille Cacnio, Spencer Kirkwood and former beauty queen Sophie Laboissonniere.
A review completed in the wake of the riot concluded Vancouver police was in a state of confusion and had lost control of the massive crowd hours before Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final even began. A series of recommendations was issued to prevent a similar riot from happening in the future.
Watch the timeline of events that led to the Stanley Cup riot and what happened during and after:
A number of businesses were damaged or looted during the riot, including London Drugs that in May of this year launched a $50,000 lawsuit against eight rioters accused of looting its store on Georgia Street.
At the same time, hundreds of Vancouverites came out to help clean up the mess left behind by the rioters and restore the city’s civic pride in the days after the riot.
Watch how Vancouver marked the one-year anniversary of the riot:
~With files from the Canadian Press
More videos:
Social media the riot
How the world viewed the riot
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