VANCOUVER – Two 14-year-old boys and a group of three high school friends from Victoria are among the latest group of people accused of taking part in the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver two years ago.
Sgt. Randy Fincham said Vancouver police are preparing to hand a 12th round of charge recommendations to Crown in the wake of the June 15, 2011, violence that followed Vancouver’s loss in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup final.
Police said in a news release Tuesday the high school friends have 15 charges recommended against them after they were captured on video in various places throughout the night.
Police say they are accused of break-ins to four separate businesses and one of the three was allegedly seen damaging a vehicle.
Later, the trio was spotted on the Skytrain with what appeared to be stolen merchandise.
“They were detained by Transit Police, and the merchandise turned out to still have the price and security tags attached, which was later found to match items stolen in the break-ins,” police said.
The two 14-year-olds face a total six counts of break and enter, two counts of mischief, one count of mischief over $5,000 and two counts of participating in a riot.
With the announcement Tuesday of the new charges, riot investigators have tallied 1,204 offences against 352 suspected rioters since the June 2011 melee.
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They also include charges against a woman accused of threatening another woman who was attempting to prevent rioters from vandalizing an unmarked police car. The crowd diverted an initial attack, but police say the accused was caught later on video tape punching the Good Samaritan in the face, causing facial and dental injuries.
Another man caught on film kicking a man while he was down on the ground in a swarming has been charged with participating in a riot, assault, break and enter, and breach of recognizance. The 24-year-old from Langley, B.C., had been ordered by a court to remain under house arrest after being charged with multiple firearms charges.
Police said they are still trying to identify three of their top 10 suspects shown on video taking part in the riot.
The news release said investigators are also “disappointed” at the number of charged and convicted rioters “who chose to ignore their promises to abide by their court-ordered conditions.”
Police have been conducting random checks and found that of 173 rioters checked, 28 were found to be breaching their conditions and have since been charged with 51 counts of breach either while awaiting trial or after sentence, the news release said.
But the random checks seem to have been paying off, police noted. Since June 14, only two suspected rioters have been found breaching their conditions.
“Our investigation is not ending,” said Supt. Dean Robinson.
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