Tuesday February 18, 2014 (Vol. 39 No. 14)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
A Canadian story: Grandchildren of a passenger on the he ill-fated Komagata Maru share hiss story as the Surrey Museum marks ks the 100th anniversary of the vessel’s rejection on B.C. shores. i see page 11
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
14-month sentence for crossing double-line on 16 Avenue, killing South Surrey man
Dump-truck driver jailed for fatality Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
The man found guilty of dangerous driving causing death in connection with the head-on crash that killed South Surrey resident Jim Neiss has been sentenced to 14 months in jail. Glen Edward Theriault learned his fate – which includes a four-year driving ban – Friday afternoon in Surrey Provincial Court.
In imposing the term, Judge Paul Dohm said it had to be enough to “strongly denounce” the driving behaviour that resulted in Neiss’s death. At the same time, he acknowledged that incarcerating the 65-year-old “will not help him or his family.” Neiss, 59, died on Jan. 18, 2011 when his SUV was struck head-on by Theriault’s dump truck as Neiss drove east along 16 Avenue en route to his job as a
Langley school-bus driver. Theriault had just crossed a doubleyellow line in an effort to pass two vehicles when the collision occurred. The court heard during trial that Theriault told police the move was “a bad three-second decision.” In rendering his guilty verdict last November, Dohm described that same decision as “conscious, deliberate, risky.” “No reasonable person would even
consider driving in the manner the accused did in this case,” he said. Friday, an emotional Theriault apologized to the court and Neiss’s wife of 20 years, Brenda Michie. “There is no words that can ever undo what happened,” he said. “From the bottom of my heart, I apologize, for everything. I just pray that someday you’ll forgive me.” i see page 2
Glen Theriault
Pursuit ended in death
Charges reduced against officer Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Nick Greenizan photo
Officers surround a residential neighbourhood after receiving a report of a “barricaded person,” however, no one was arrested at the scene.
Police presence felt in White Rock neighbourhood – again
Armed ‘standoff’ a non-issue: RCMP Tracy Holmes & Nick Greenizan Staff Reporters
A suspected “barricaded person” in a White Rock home prompted a short but intense police response Friday afternoon. The response included several marked police cars, an armoured vehicle and a helicopter. Witnesses describing a “hostage situation” reported seeing officers with assault rifles at the scene and roadblocks throughout uptown White Rock. “It looked like a whole lot, but there was nothing,” Sgt. Manly Burleigh said Monday of activity near Maple Street and Goggs Avenue. Officers raced to the scene shortly after 3
p.m., surrounded the home and left by 5 p.m. Former MLA Ken Jones told Peace Arch News the owner of the targeted house told him police were “looking for a known person who had befriended a person who was a tenant of hers.” While responding officers were treating it as a “mental-health” situation, White Rock detachment issued no public statement that day. Monday, Burleigh told PAN it was “a nonincident… just a situation that involved what was believed to be a barricaded person.” “At the end of the day, there was not anybody even in the house, so it was a non-issue.” The incident drew a crowd of bystanders to
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Thrift Avenue and Maple Street. Police blocked that intersection and several others, and RCMP vehicles were parked at the Kent Street Activity Centre, which connects to Goggs Avenue. It was the second incident involving a heavy police presence in the area in just over two weeks. On Jan. 29, a plainclothes officer fired upon a taxi near Finlay Street and Russell Avenue, after investigating a “known crack shack.” Three people, including the taxi driver, were taken into custody and later released. Investigation into the alleged drug house is ongoing, as is an independent investigation by Coquitlam RCMP into the police-involved shooting.
A White Rock police officer who was charged following the 2011 hit-and-run incident that killed pedestrian Marilyn Laursen will not be tried in connection with the 56-year-old’s death. But Const. David Bickle will go to trial on a charge of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. The pursued driver who struck and killed Laursen, Kyle Brandon Danyliuk, is currently serving a two-year sentence, after pleading guilty in 2012 to four charges in connection with the incident. Following last week’s preliminary inquiry into the case against Bickle, prosecutor Steven Black advised the court he would be directing a stay of proceedings on a charge of dangerous driving causing death. It was one of two charges announced against the officer in August 2012, following a Vancouver Police Department investigation into the events leading up to Laursen’s death. The VPD alleged that the officer’s “actions and failure i see page 2
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