Ethan Bespflug (17) killed in a bus stabbing. Mom found him at hospital after tracking his phone.

[jennafyre]

https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/...aunt-says.html



Mother of B.C. teen killed in bus stabbing tracked his phone to hospital, aunt says


Ethan Bespflug was a good kid and older brother who worked hard, helped look after his four siblings, and loved fishing with his stepfather, his aunt said.

On Tuesday, the 17-year-old was fatally stabbed on a Metro Vancouver bus.

Andrea Van Der Gracht said she?s currently caring for Bespflug?s sisters, aged 11 months and two years old, as his parents try to come to terms with the tragedy.

She said his mother realized something was wrong when she tracked Bespflug?s phone to a hospital in New Westminster. She rushed there and was told her son had died.

?This is a really good family, and this is going to break them,? Van Der Gracht said Thursday.

Bespflug also enjoyed spending time with his friends and playing video games, and he often picked up odd jobs to earn some extra money, said Van Der Gracht.

RCMP have said the stabbing happened just before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday on a bus in Surrey, not far from the King George SkyTrain station.

Police have yet to make any arrests and they?re still seeking witnesses.

The Mounties have said the stabbing appears to have been a targeted, isolated incident, with no connection to gang conflict in the Lower Mainland.

Van Der Gracht said Bespflug had gone to a friend?s house after school on Tuesday.

He regularly took the bus to Surrey, where his mother would pick him up to drive home to Abbotsford, she said, adding that the family had moved from Surrey last year, partly because of concerns about crime.

Bespflug had texted a friend that two other young people had boarded the bus and he wanted to get off at the next stop in order to avoid them, she said.

They allegedly stabbed him after he got up to try to get off the bus, she said.

Van Der Gracht is calling for security staff on board buses, noting the stabbing that killed her nephew was the second in as many weeks on a bus in Surrey.

The first victim, whose throat was slashed on April 1, is now recovering at home. A man has been charged with terrorism offences in that case, and police have said the attacks were unrelated.

?As a community, we need to be together,? Van Der Gracht said.

?We need to keep each other safe. Maybe we need more mental health support, more community outreach programs for teens and youth.?

Premier David Eby said Thursday that police have stepped up their patrols on buses and trains after Bespflug?s death, calling it every parent?s nightmare.

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth is reaching out to transit authorities and police to see if more resources are needed to ensure safety, Eby said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 13, 2023.

[jennafyre]

Ethan's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ethan.bear.338

Mom's facebook (heartbreaking): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100015435736902

[raisedbywolves]

This is horrible and heartbreaking.

[Angiebla]

The Mounties have said the stabbing appears to have been a targeted, isolated incident, with no connection to gang conflict in the Lower Mainland.

They said that about the Idaho murders, which were basically random.

[Bewitchingstorm]

Gawd, this is horrible.

[Nic B]

Sounds like he knew those 2 kids and that they were trouble, which is why he tried to get off the bus. This is so sad.

[jennafyre]

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/murder-charge-...-b-c-1.6359271

The male accused: Kaiden Brady Robert Mintenko. There is talk of a female involved as well but I haven't heard her name released yet.

A murder charge has been laid in the fatal stabbing of a teenager on a transit bus in Surrey last week.

According to online court records, Kaiden Brady Robert Mintenko, born in 2003, has been charged in the case and was scheduled to appear in court for a bail hearing Monday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference, officials from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said a 20-year-old suspect from Burnaby had been taken into custody on Sunday.

Police did not name the suspect during their news conference, but confirmed later that Mintenko had been charged with second-degree murder.

Seventeen-year-old Ethan Bespflug was on his way home after meeting up with friends in Surrey, but he never made it. According to his family, he texted a friend and expressed that he was feeling unsafe shortly before the stabbing occurred.

Bespflug's mother, Holly Indridson, said she felt relief when she got the phone call from homicide investigators with news a suspect had been caught.

"I think it gives me some relief knowing that that person is not out there just living a free life that he wants because, you know, it does help a lot. Because you take a life, now you're gonna serve life, I'm hoping," she told CTV News.

IHIT said Monday that investigators are still working to determine the relationship between Bespflug and his accused murderer, but that the attack was not random.

The teen's family has told reporters that Bespflug encountered two people on the bus – a boy and a girl – and that the girl "didn't like him."

When pressed at the news conference, IHIT spokesperson Sgt. Timothy Pierotti said the accused and the victim were known to each other "through a third party."

He also added that the arrested suspect was "known to police."

Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards, the officer in charge of the Surrey RCMP, described Bespflug's death as "heartbreaking."

"After all these years of being a police officer, I still struggle with the senselessness of certain crimes," Edwards said. "This is one of those crimes."

Bespflug's killing was just the most shocking in a recent string of violent events on transit that have prompted condemnation from TransLink officials and increased police patrols on transit in Surrey.

Both Edwards and Dave Jones, the chief of Metro Vancouver Transit Police, sought to reassure the public that police are working to address the recent spate of violence.

Each man noted that his respective agency has stepped up patrols in the wake of Bespflug's death, and Jones said the MVTP has been investigating potential connections between specific attacks and hasn't found any.

"My emphasis here is this is an anomaly, the number of events that have occurred of this type of nature on the transit system," Jones said. "There was no commonality between all of the events that have occurred – the separate incidents that have occurred."

As for Indridson, she would like to see an end to all the violent attacks.

"Stop attacking each other online, stop attacking each other every day in so many different ways. Stop attacking each other," she pleaded.

The family is holding a candlelight vigil near where the attack happened at 100th Avenue and King George Boulevard Tuesday at 7 p.m. to raise awareness about the senseless violence

[Bewitchingstorm]

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/murder-charge-...-b-c-1.6359271

The male accused: Kaiden Brady Robert Mintenko. There is talk of a female involved as well but I haven't heard her name released yet.

A murder charge has been laid in the fatal stabbing of a teenager on a transit bus in Surrey last week.

According to online court records, Kaiden Brady Robert Mintenko, born in 2003, has been charged in the case and was scheduled to appear in court for a bail hearing Monday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference, officials from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said a 20-year-old suspect from Burnaby had been taken into custody on Sunday.

Police did not name the suspect during their news conference, but confirmed later that Mintenko had been charged with second-degree murder.

Seventeen-year-old Ethan Bespflug was on his way home after meeting up with friends in Surrey, but he never made it. According to his family, he texted a friend and expressed that he was feeling unsafe shortly before the stabbing occurred.

Bespflug's mother, Holly Indridson, said she felt relief when she got the phone call from homicide investigators with news a suspect had been caught.

"I think it gives me some relief knowing that that person is not out there just living a free life that he wants because, you know, it does help a lot. Because you take a life, now you're gonna serve life, I'm hoping," she told CTV News.

IHIT said Monday that investigators are still working to determine the relationship between Bespflug and his accused murderer, but that the attack was not random.

The teen's family has told reporters that Bespflug encountered two people on the bus – a boy and a girl – and that the girl "didn't like him."

When pressed at the news conference, IHIT spokesperson Sgt. Timothy Pierotti said the accused and the victim were known to each other "through a third party."

He also added that the arrested suspect was "known to police."

Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards, the officer in charge of the Surrey RCMP, described Bespflug's death as "heartbreaking."

"After all these years of being a police officer, I still struggle with the senselessness of certain crimes," Edwards said. "This is one of those crimes."

Bespflug's killing was just the most shocking in a recent string of violent events on transit that have prompted condemnation from TransLink officials and increased police patrols on transit in Surrey.

Both Edwards and Dave Jones, the chief of Metro Vancouver Transit Police, sought to reassure the public that police are working to address the recent spate of violence.

Each man noted that his respective agency has stepped up patrols in the wake of Bespflug's death, and Jones said the MVTP has been investigating potential connections between specific attacks and hasn't found any.

"My emphasis here is this is an anomaly, the number of events that have occurred of this type of nature on the transit system," Jones said. "There was no commonality between all of the events that have occurred – the separate incidents that have occurred."

As for Indridson, she would like to see an end to all the violent attacks.

"Stop attacking each other online, stop attacking each other every day in so many different ways. Stop attacking each other," she pleaded.

The family is holding a candlelight vigil near where the attack happened at 100th Avenue and King George Boulevard Tuesday at 7 p.m. to raise awareness about the senseless violence

I am glad they arrested him. Per a post on FB, someone mentioned the female's name as Isabella Leraci.

[raisedbywolves]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...rrey-9.7239434

A man who fatally stabbed a teenager on a Surrey, B.C., bus in April 2023 was sentenced to eight years in prison after previously being found guilty of manslaughter.

With credit for time served, Mintenko will serve three years, four months and 18 days in prison.

The Burnaby man was initially charged with the more serious offence of second-degree murder, which would have carried a life sentence if he was found guilty.

But last year, Supreme Court Justice Terry Schultes told the court that he had decided to downgrade the original charge because there was a reasonable doubt that Mintenko had the required intent necessary to be found guilty of second-degree murder.

In giving Mintenko a prison sentence, Schultes wrote in his sentencing decision that the man poses a high risk to commit further acts of violence.

The justice wrote that Mintenko was a "time bomb waiting to go off" at the time of the killing, but that he seemed receptive to therapy and counselling programs that he would receive in prison.

In addition to being prohibited from possessing weapons, he was also asked to submit DNA as part of the sentence.

[Bewitchingstorm]

That's it? Wow.

[Nic B]

So are they saying it was self defense, or that he wasn't in his right mind to know what he was doing? Why the downgrade?