Three people have been hospitalized after a plane went down at the airport in Langley, BC. RCMP say in a news release that they got multiple calls just after 3 p-m yesterday about a plane crashing. They say a pickup truck travelling near the airport was hit as the plane was coming down and that the driver has also been sent to hospital. Police say the two occupants of the aircraft were airlifted to hospital, and because the investigation is in its early stages, a cause has yet to be determined
New Westminster police says they are temporarily increasing their presence in the city’s downtown in an effort to address safety concerns. It says this comes after a shooting, two stabbings and several assaults with weapons in the past two months. Police say members from the Crime Reduction Unit, Road and Traffic Safety Unit, and Gang Suppression Unit will be deployed to the downtown neighbourhood on bikes, on foot and in cars. They say this new deployment model will reassessed at the end of May.
Vancouver Police Chief Constable Adam Palmer says the death of Myles Gray had a profound and lasting impact on everyone involved, and he extends his deepest condolences to the Gray family. Gray, who was 33, died in August 2015 after a beating by Vancouver police that left him with injuries including ruptured testicles and fractures in his eye socket, nose, voice box and rib. The jury in the coroner’s inquest into his death recommended the Vancouver Police Department expedite the use of body-worn cameras for all patrol officers and that it enhanced crisis de-escalation training for officers, especially in situations where someone is experiencing a mental-health disturbance. Palmer says in a statement that the police will carefully review the recommendations. He says the department believes all officers should have access to the most up-to-date training on crisis de-escalation and mental health, and are currently implementing a pilot program to equip all front-line officers with body-worn cameras.
A new report by British Columbia’s auditor general says almost half of the government’s ministries were affected by some type of fraud between 2021 and 2022. Michael Pickup says the results of a questionnaire sent to ministries suggest not all are following the same approach for managing risk. The report says that of the 45 per cent of ministries affected, the most common type of fraud was theft. Pickup says the findings are important because fraud attempts have become more sophisticated over time.
The BC Securities Commissions says a now-defunct cryptocurrency trading platform based in Nanaimo defrauded customers to the tune of about 13 million dollars. In a notice of hearing, the commission alleges David Smillie and his firm known as EZBTC lied to customers about how it held their digital assets, including Bitcoin and Ether. The commission’s director of enforcement, Doug Muir, says the hearing notice comes after it began probing into the company’s activities. Smillie will have to attend the Vancouver commission office on June 27th to fix a date to hear the regulator’s allegations.
Mounties say they have identified human remains that were found in Surrey earlier this year, following calls for the public’s help. The RCMP say they were able to identify the victim within a week of releasing photos of a tattoo and the clothing the man was wearing. They say his name is not being shared out of respect for his family and their request for privacy. Police say criminality is not believed to be a factor in his death.