The Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Police Department has recommended 163 charges against 60 suspected rioters for crimes associated with the Stanley Cup riot that erupted downtown June 15.
Police Chief Jim Chu announced the charges Monday against 50 men and 10 women, the majority of whom reside in Surrey. The suspects average age is 21, with the youngest a 16-year-old boy and the eldest a 52-year-old man.
This is just the beginning as we expect to announce more arrests in the weeks and months ahead, Chu told reporters at the Cambie Street police station.
Charges include participating in a riot, assault, arson, mischief, break and enter. One suspect is facing 10 charges in connection with the mayhem that ensued downtown after the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Of the 60 suspects, 21 are from Surrey, 12 from Vancouver, nine from Burnaby, four from Maple Ridge and two each from Abbotsford and Delta. Other hometowns of suspects include Richmond, Victoria, Seattle and Westbank.
None of the suspects can be named until Crown counsel approves the charges. The charge recommendations to Crown took police more than four months but Chu said the time was necessary to build cases against the suspects.
In the minds of many, today has been a long time coming and I share those frustrations, the chief said. I wish there could have been a quicker and simpler way to bring the rioters before the courts. And as tempting as it may have been to some to take those short cuts, we still believe that we owed it to the victims of the riot and the residents of community to take the time necessary to build the best cases possible.
Chu cited the case of a 21-year-old man from Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Island who initially contacted police and wanted to apologize for damaging a car. The suspect contacted police after seeing his photograph on Facebook.
Police were prepared to recommend a charge of mischief but held off to later run the suspects descriptors in a high-tech computer video lab in Indianapolis.
The computer was able to cull more evidence against the man including mischief to six vehicles, smashing a window with a skateboard, assisting in flipping a car, damaging the door of an unmarked police car, jumping on vehicles and three break-and-enters to a coffee shop, clothing store and department store.
A team of five Crown prosecutors is now poring over the extensive amount of police evidence, including several hours of video footage, to assess whether the charges will be approved.
Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie told reporters at the press conference that he couldnt say exactly when prosecutors will have completed their work.
Each individual charge assessment is going to take some time to process, MacKenzie said. I think, realistically, we may see files in court before the end of November but again I cant commit to a specific timeline at this point.
The Crowns assessment of the police evidence will consider whether a suspect will likely be convicted and whether its in the public interest to proceed with the charges.
We anticipate, given the abundance of video and photographic evidence that is obviously available in connection with many of the accused, that some of the evidence the Crown views will be quite compelling, MacKenzie added. At the same time, it still remains that the Crown must independently and objectively and fairly assess the evidence.
Twitter: @Howellings
