Suspect in Maple Ridge abduction could face list of charges

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MAPLE RIDGE (NEWS1130) – A man has been arrested after a teenage girl was abducted and beaten in Maple Ridge over the weekend.

Heavily armed officers took him into custody in downtown Vancouver around 10 o’clock Tuesday night.  Just a few hours earlier, police released a picture of a suspect and were flooded with tips from the public.

“There’s no question that the photographs that were released were the key to this case,” says Insp. Dave Fleugel with Ridge Meadows RCMP.  “We received numerous pieces of information from the public and we were able to act on that immediately last night.”

Police got a tip about a man in Surrey who matched the description and officers were able to catch up with him in a parkade near West Pender Street and Richards Street in Vancouver a short while later.

Fleugel expects kidnapping and assault causing bodily harm charges will be laid.

“Investigators are also working on leads right now that aren’t linked specifically to the Saturday night event, but may link him to some armed robberies throughout the Metro Vancouver area,” Fleugel says.

The 17-year-old girl was in the parking lot at Westgate Mall on Saturday night when a man asked her to help him get his car started.

When she walked over to him he pulled out a gun and ordered her to get in her own car.

She then drove him to a secluded area where she was assaulted before she managed to escape.

“Our investigators contacted the victim after the arrest was made and she was very relieved and very thankful,” Fleugel says.  “She is doing well but she has significant injuries from the assault and she is still quite sore.”

Fleugel isn’t sure when the accused will make his first court appearance.

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