22295 replies to this topic

[pontcanna]

Wanted: Morgan Elizabeth Blanch

B.C., Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team (IMPACT), Wanted Warrant

2024-04-12 

April is Auto Crime Enforcement Month and IMPACT is requesting the public’s assistance to locate 38-year-old Morgan Elizabeth Blanch.

Morgan Elizabeth Blanch is wanted by Nanaimo RCMP and West Shore RCMP on [14 unendorsed warrants] for the following:

Possess a weapon for dangerous purpose
Assault
Possession of stolen property
Theft Under $5000
Break and Enter
Theft of Motor Vehicle
Fraud

Morgan Elizabeth Blanch is described as:

 

Caucasian female
5’8 (173 cm)
141 lb (64 kg)
Brown hair
Brown eyes

Morgan Elizabeth Blanch is bound by property crime related conditions and wanted on 14 warrants in relation the above noted police files.

If you have any information about Morgan Elizabeth Blanch’s whereabouts, please contact IMPACT or your local police department. If you wish to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

Released by:

BC RCMP Communications

[Victoria Watcher]

The victim of a fatal stabbing Tuesday night on Douglas Street near Burnside Road has been identified as Oliver Nicholson.

 

A Cool Aid spokesperson confirmed Nicholson was the man killed in a stabbing just before midnight Tuesday in the 2900 block of Douglas Street outside Palagio Pizza. Nicholson lived in Cool Aid’s Crosstown housing facility at Douglas and Burnside, formerly the Tally Ho Motel.

 

On Friday, Cool Aid staff were not able to share more about Nicholson.

 

In April 2022, Nicholson was the victim of a vicious attack inside a suite in the housing facility. Nicholson was addicted to methamphetamine and owed his dealer $190 for drugs he purchased for his girlfriend at the time, according to an October 2023 B.C. Supreme Court judgment that found one of the men involved guilty of extortion, unlawful confinement, assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon.

 

Several people, including his dealer, his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend, participated in the attack, confining Nicholson in a room where they duct-taped him to a chair and beat him, lighting his shoulder on fire and branding him with a hot coin, according to the judgment.

 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...-street-8596154

[pontcanna]

Have You Seen Wanted Person Christian Richardson? 

 

Date: Friday, April 12, 2024 

File: #23-12395 

 

 

    Wanted Person Christian Richardson Arrested

 

Date: Monday, April 15, 2024  

File: 23-12395 

 

Victoria, BC – VicPD officers located and arrested wanted person Christian Richardson last night. Richardson was wanted for Fraud Over $5,000 and a VicPD Wanted Person Alert was issued on April 12. 

[pontcanna]

Three sections of Douglas Street closed due to another stabbing

Monday, April 15th, 2024



While details remain sparse, VicPD have confirmed another stabbing investigation is underway near the intersection of Douglas and Yates Street in downtown Victoria.

Footage from the scene shows emergency responders attending to an individual, who is later transported away in an ambulance.

The incident occurred just before 10:30 a.m. Monday morning. Photos sent to Victoria Buzz also show two other sections of Douglas Street closed, including outside of Shoppers Drug Mart.

More: https://www.victoria...other-stabbing/

[Nparker]

Nothing to see here, right Ms. Alto?

[pontcanna]

Officers Respond To Daytime Stabbing Downtown

 

Date: Monday, April 15, 2024 

File: #24-12873 

 

Victoria, BC – On Monday, April 15, just before 10:30 a.m. VicPD Traffic officers were conducting proactive patrols in the downtown core when they were flagged down to respond to a stabbing in the 600-block of Yates Street. 

 

Officers quickly assessed that a male victim had been stabbed. They provided first-aid, and the man was transported to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Pedestrian foot traffic was disrupted in the area while three scenes were sectioned off and documented, and evidence was collected by the Forensic Investigative Services section. There were no other victims, and there have been no arrests.  

 

This file is in the early stages of investigation, and officers are asking anyone who witnessed the event today, or anyone who may have CCTV footage of the event, to call the EComm Report Desk at (250)-995-7654 extension 1. To report what you know anonymously, please call Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. 

 

This is the seventh stabbing incident since March 1 in Victoria, with two incidents as suspected homicides. However, these are each considered isolated incidents, and there is no reason to believe they are connected at this time.  

 

Although the number and close frequency of recent stabbing events is concerning, it is not significantly higher than most other years, as indicated in the chart below, which details reports of all Assaults Involving a Knife during each Quarter over the past five years. It’s important to note that these numbers do not specifically indicate stabbings, but all assaults that involve a knife.  

 

 

VicPD officers have been conducting more patrols in the downtown core in recent months, including foot patrols, and will continue this proactive work to ensure that Victoria continues to be a safe community. Each day, tens of thousands of people safely live, work, play and visit in Victoria, and our citizens and visitors should continue to feel safe in going about their day-to-day lives. 

 

As this file remains under investigation, further details cannot be shared at this time.  

 

 

[Mike K.]

So that’s a stabbing roughly every 4 days.

I was just remarking on how uncomfortable the Douglas and Yates area is. I absolutely, most definitely do not feel safe in that area. There is nothing about that area to make me feel safe. Until VicPD stations police on street corners like American cities do there will be no feeling of safety in that area, based on what is going on there currently. The situation is totally untenable.

[Nparker]

...Until VicPD stations police on street corners like American cities do there will be no feeling of safety in that area...

Until there is a change in government at all levels, public safety is only a pipe dream.

[pontcanna]

Woman pleads guilty & sentenced for downtown Nanaimo stabbing

Apr 16, 2024 

NANAIMO — A vulnerable man sleeping at a bus stop awoke to a woman stabbing him several times in the head.

 

Kimberly Anne Lewis, 53, pleaded guilty to and was sentenced for aggravated assault for an Aug. 14, 2022 incident at bus stop adjacent to Port Place Shopping Centre.

The attack between two Indigenous people known to each other left the victim seriously injured.

Lewis received a time-served sentence of two years in jail followed by two years probation. She’ll remain housed indefinitely at a residential treatment centre in Mission, BC.

Crown counsel’s James Kulla outlined the facts during a Monday, April 15 sentencing hearing in BC Supreme Court in Nanaimo involving Lewis buying a knife from the adjoining mall just prior to the attack on Front St. just east of Esplanade.

While on her mobility scooter, Lewis spotted the victim at about 9 a.m., approached him and immediately began stabbing him several times in the head.

“Shortly thereafter Ms. Lewis called 911, she described that she had just stabbed a homeless male with a knife,” Kulla told court.

Monday’s hearing was told Lewis, a mother of four, has multiple mental health challenges, including a sufferer of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder, opioid and stimulant use disorders, along with bipolar and borderline personality disorders.

She was granted bail last May and has excelled during an extended tenure at a supportive recovery environment, court was told.

Her dated criminal record includes convictions for robberies in 2004 and 2012.

 

More: https://nanaimonewsn...naimo-stabbing/

[Victoria Watcher]

Criminals are moving into supportive housing facilities in Victoria specifically to prey on vulnerable people, says the city’s police chief.

 

“What happens is they pose as people experiencing homelessness,” Del Manak told members of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, a day after police responded to the seventh stabbing in the city in the past six weeks.

 

“They embed themselves in the very facilities where people are vulnerable and marginalized. And then they’re able to exploit them, extort them out of their suites,” he said.

 

“It’s only four or five months later when there’s a stabbing in the stairwell of a supportive housing location that we find out that this individual is actually a criminal and they actually have a place [elsewhere].”

 

Manak made the comments as part of a panel discussion on public safety and how it relates to housing, mental health and policing.

 

He did not specify how frequently infiltration of supportive housing facilities occurs, saying only that “most” sites have embedded criminals or their associates.

 

“We don’t hear about it till somebody gets stabbed or they get extorted,” he said to the Times Colonist.

 

“Staff at the supportive housing locations are amazing, they do a great job,” Manak said. “But I’m just telling you, the criminal element is smart and they know how to work their way through to be able to carry on with their criminality.”

 

Those living in supportive housing don’t speak openly about it due to fears of retribution, he said.

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...d-chief-8611190

[Mike K.]

Can’t we check their criminal history to know if they’re a criminal or not? It’s unlikely someone will go to those lengths, as their first criminal act.

[Victoria Watcher]

Can’t we check their criminal history to know if they’re a criminal or not? It’s unlikely someone will go to those lengths, as their first criminal act.

 

 

 

 

A temporary transitional site in Nanaimo that was established in response to the clearing of a large encampment in 2018 took two years to stabilize, Ibarra said. “We didn’t know who everyone was or what they needed because of the way that order was issued.”

 

Today, it’s one of Pacifica’s more successful sites, she said.

 

Ibarra said that Pacifica accepts people with criminal records in their supportive housing facilities.

 

“That is a part of the homelessness issue, with people being released onto the street,” she said, adding that the organizationworks with residents in preventing recidivism.

 

People without a home are often only thinking about survival, Ibarra said. “Sometimes they do things that they don’t want to do to keep themselves safe.”

 

“Housing is really the No. 1 protection. From there, every other service can be bolted on,” she said.

[Mike K.]

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that there are criminals living at these facilities.

[Victoria Watcher]

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that there are criminals living at these facilities.

 

The Chief suggested that "have a place" but mostly live elsewhere.

 

I've been saying it for years, these places must have a curfew.  We are paying most of your rent, it comes with some restrictions.  Get you own place, it'll have less rules.

[pontcanna]

Man brandishing knife arrested

West Shore

2024-04-17

File # 2024-7098

On April 16 2024, at approximately 7:12 p.m. the West Shore RCMP received a complaint from a witness who advised there was a man on the Galloping Goose Trail near the area of Atkins Rd and Brydon Rd who was brandishing a knife and threatening people with it.

West Shore RCMP Frontline officers attended the area immediately and located the suspect who was arrested without further incident. The suspect was arrested for Uttering Threats, Possession of a Weapon for a Dangerous Purpose, and Possession of a Prohibited Device.

 

 Upon searching the suspect police seized a knife that opened with centrifugal force, which is against the law to possess. At the time of his arrest, the suspect was displaying symptoms of being intoxicated by alcohol. The 47-year-old male suspect was held in police custody and is set to appear before the courts today.

Thankfully no one was physically injured in this incident. We want to thank the witness who called police right away and provided a detailed description of the suspect and his location which allowed police to apprehend the suspect quickly, said Cpl. Nancy Saggar, West Shore RCMP Media Relations Officer.

Released by

Cpl. Nancy Saggar
Media Relations Officer
West Shore RCMP

[Mike P.]

That guy with the knife has a record going back to 1998: break and enter; PSP under 5000; robbery; driving while impaired, possessed non-fire arm unauthorized. Another revolving door success story.

[LJ]

People without a home are often only thinking about survival, Ibarra said. “Sometimes they do things that they don’t want to do to keep themselves safe.”

 

I think they are more concerned about where their next hit is coming from.

[pontcanna]

Closing arguments scheduled in trial of Nanaimo woman accused of dismembering ex boyfriend

Apr 17, 2024 

A full day of final submissions are on deck in the murder trial of a Nanaimo woman accused of the high-profile slaying of her former boyfriend.

Paris Jayanne Laroche, 28, pleaded not guilty to first degree murder and indignity to human remains after Sidney Josephe Mantee, 32, was gruesomely murdered in early March 2020.

Laroche admitted to undercover police and several witnesses to striking Mantee in the back of the head multiple times with sledgehammer at the Rosehill St. apartment they shared during an early morning ambush.

 

Sidney Mantee

 

Evidence provided in court stated Laroche slit his throat, cut his body into small pieces, stored body parts in her fridge, then spread the remains throughout Nanaimo over the course of several months.

At issue is whether Laroche’s actions were deemed to be reasonable in light of evidence presented throughout the trial of physical abuse by Mantee toward Laroche and her cat.

Crown prosecutor Nick Barber concluded cross examination of a defence witness: University of Windsor sociology and criminology professor Dr. Amy Fitzgerald.

He unsuccessfully argued to have her evidence tossed out, arguing her research into roles pets play in intimate partner violence scenarios was flawed and not relevant to the trial.

Her legal team includes high profile defence attorney Glen Orris, who contended earlier in the trial that evidence showed Larcohe was severely abused both physically and psychologically by Mantee and that him abusing one of her cats shortly before his death was “the last straw.”

The trial relayed lengthy audio excerpts from an undercover police sting operation in which Laroche directed police to body parts of Mantee she placed throughout Nanaimo, including parks.

 

More: https://nanaimonewsn...g-ex-boyfriend/

 

[Sparky]

Whoa! Note to self.

Don’t mess with a lady’s cat.

[pontcanna]

 

viccrimestop

 

Hey Greater Victoria

While we know that the pictures look like they were taken with a potato, we are hopeful some might recognize this suspect.

 

Oak Bay Police are currently looking to identify this person, who is a suspect in a residential Break & Enter that took place in the 1600 block of Wilmot Road on March 28th, around 9:50am.

 

The suspect entered the residence and stole a laptop valued at $1400.00 before leaving the area on foot.

#24-761

 

 

 

viccrimestop

 

Hey Greater Victoria

This post is in regards to our previous post where an unknown suspect committed the Break & Enter and stole a laptop.

Oak Bay Police have been able to obtain clearer images of the suspect who attempted to shoplift prior to committing the Break & Enter.

If you know who this suspect is and you want to tell us their name anonymously, please call 1-800-222-8477 or submit a tip online at www.victoriacrimestoppers.ca