news Murder of homeless man has touched a nerve with public: Vancouver

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Murder of homeless man has touched a nerve with public: Vancouver


2 hours, 12 minutes ago





By James Keller, The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. - The disturbing killing of a wheelchair-bound homeless man in Vancouver has touched a nerve in a city already coping with an ever-bloodier gang war and the recent murder of a woman jogging through a local park, say police.
Michael Ciro Nestoruk was found dead last Thursday outside a local elementary school. His body was discovered by parents dropping off their children for the day.
The 41-year-old had only one leg and was confined to a wheelchair.
"This has, I think, touched a bit of a nerve in the public, and we certainly want to keep the public aware (of the investigation)," Const. Lindsey Houghton said in an interview Monday.
Investigators have no leads and little information about what happened and are having difficulty piecing together what Nestoruk was doing in the hours before he died, said Houghton.
Nestoruk's death marks the city's 13th homicide of 2009, and the tally throughout B.C.'s Lower Mainland is higher.
Many of the killings are linked to gang violence that has grown exponentially since the new year - but not all.
Nestoruk's death happened less than a week after a woman was killed while jogging in a pristine, densely forested park near the University of British Columbia.
In Wendy Ladner-Beaudry's case, as in Nestoruk's, investigators have yet to reveal any theories about what happened and have raised the possibility that each could be simply random acts of violence.
While the frequent headlines about violence in the city have left residents on edge, Houghton said he believes the public understands police are doing their best to respond.
"The public trusts us to do our jobs to the best of the ability with the resources that we have," said Houghton.
"And I certainly know that the public does have that faith in us, given the resources that we have and given the recent spike in violence that we've experienced."
The concern about the bloodshed in Vancouver has reached far beyond the city, which is already under the microscope as it prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympics in less than a year.
Elsewhere in the country and around the world, much of what outsiders have heard about Vancouver in recent months involves the blow-by-blow of the gang war.
When officials from the International Olympic Committee visit the city, they are routinely asked about how gang violence might affect the Games. And they routinely respond that they're not concerned.
Last week, news outlets as far away as South Africa were carrying stories about the sentencing of a gang member convicted in connection with the high-profile killings of six people in Surrey, B.C. The fact that Vancouver is an Olympic host city is often mentioned in the first paragraph.
Earlier this month, police and politicians were forced to respond to examples of particularly negative coverage in international media.
Britain's The Independent newspaper described Vancouver's "blood-spattered streets littered with shell casings and corpses," while an Associated Press story referred to a "spasm of gang violence" in the city.
Vancouver's police chief insisted the city is safe, saying critics from abroad should "look in their own back yard" before passing judgement.
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, who heads into an election campaign Tuesday, quickly dismissed the graphic characterizations of the province's largest city as "cheap shots."