Police recommend 200 more riot related charges
Posted September 26, 2012 5:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver police have announced the arrest of their number one most-wanted suspect in the Stanley Cup riot.
Jonathan Stephen Mahoney, 24, was arrested at his work yesterday in Lanigan, Saskatchewan. Mahoney is the fifteenth and final suspect wanted in the beating of Good Samaritan Robert McKay outside of The Bay during the riot.
McKay was attacked after trying to stop an angry mob of looters outside the department store.
“We tracked the final suspect across the country,” explains Inspector Laurence Rankin. “From Winnipeg to Newfoundland and then finally back to Saskatchewan.”
“Yesterday, two IRIT (Integrated Riot Investigation Team) investigators flew to Saskatchewan,” he adds. “And, with assistance of the Humboldt RCMP, arrested the fifteenth and only remaining suspect in Mr. McKay’s assault.”
Rankin says the suspect is in custody, “and will be flown back to Vancouver later this afternoon, escorted by the investigators.”
During the investigation, police released video showing the attack on McKay. The disturbing footage outraged the public and police alike.
Mahoney became the most-wanted suspect after the other 14 people accused of beating McKay were identified and charges were recommended.
Vancouver Police have recommended charges of participating in a riot, assault, assault with a weapon, and two counts of mischief against Mahoney.
“Our team continues to be unwavering in our commitment to this investigation,” Rankin says. “Because the victims of the riot deserve nothing less.”
Mahoney isn’t the only suspect getting attention today. Police announced 200 charges against 50 people — 44 men, six women and eight youths.
Only 24 per cent of these new suspects are from Vancouver. Most of the rest are from Metro Vancouver, but there are two from the interior and two from “other locations.”
All of these new suspects have been charged with participating in a riot. Other charges include mischief (56 counts), break and enter (44 counts), disguise with intent (26 counts), assault (nine counts), and arson (three counts).
This is the ninth round of charges announced by VPD riot investigators. To date, 872 charges have been recommended against 275 people, 15 months after the Stanley Cup riot.
