An elite Burnaby youth hockey player has been suspended pending an investigation into a text he allegedly sent to a player on an opposing team saying he would pay for two of his own teammates 鈥渢o be murdered.鈥�
A screenshot of the message was sent to the NOW in an anonymous letter Thursday morning.
鈥淲anna text your gc [group chat] and let them know that depending on the hit i will pay for [name of two teammates] to be murdered,鈥� reads the message.
The letter with the text identified the player, saying he was a member of Burnaby Winter Club Elite 15 team and that he had sent the message to a player on the Delta Academy Elite 15 team the day before the two teams were set to play each other.
The writer of the anonymous letter said they had also sent copies to other individuals, hockey teams, news media and the police.
Burnaby Winter Club president Rob Ward said the club was made aware of the situation Wednesday night and is investigating.
鈥淏urnaby Winter Club is aware of the letter and the situation surrounding it,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he player who allegedly sent the text captured in the letter has been in to meet with our hockey director along with his family, and he has provided further context to the story. The matter has been referred to our standards committee for review, and the player has been suspended pending the outcome of that investigation.鈥�
Ward said Burnaby Central Secondary, where BWC academy players go to school, is also investigating the matter, and police have been notified.
When asked whether the identity of the anonymous letter-writer was also being investigated, Ward said that would be up to police.
鈥淭hat鈥檒l be up to them if they want to figure out who was doing that and if it鈥檚 defamatory in any way,鈥� he said.
Burnaby RCMP said one of its school liaison officers is looking into the incident.
Media spokesperson Cpl. Mike Kalanj said the detachment takes such matters seriously, and that this situation "has been dealt with."
"It all boils down to a hockey disagreement," he said. "Neither youth mentioned [in the text] is fearful, and the youth that this originally came from has been spoken to," he said.
