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WEDNESDAY
DECEMBER 11 2013 www.burnabynewsleader.com
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Former hoops star loses appeal Total 22 years for weapons trafficking, counselling to commit murder Wanda Chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
WANDA CHOW/NEWSLEADER
Six Burnaby RCMP vehicles were allegedly damaged by a man early Sunday morning who then went on to cause a flood at Burnaby Hospital where he was taken by police for a mental health assessment. The cost of the damage is not yet known, but a brand-new, fully-equipped patrol car costs about $45,000, says Burnaby RCMP Staff Sgt. Major John Buis.
Cruisers smashed, ER flooded in rampage Wanda Chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
A 38-year-old Surrey man is in custody after six parked police cars were seriously damaged and Burnaby Hospital’s emergency department was flooded early Sunday morning, say Burnaby RCMP. Joseph Field, 38, of Surrey has been charged with two counts of possession of stolen property and one count of mischief over $5,000 in connection with the damaged police vehicles, said Burnaby RCMP Staff Sgt. Major John Buis.
Field is known to police and the five-ton rental truck. could still face additional charges in He backed the truck into two relation to the hospital incident. police cars, then severely damaged A nearby resident several more as well called police just as the original Jeep after 1 a.m. Sunday while maneuvering Staff Sgt. Major John Buis when they saw a the truck, which he man trying to break We didn’t know what we eventually crashed were dealing with at the into a rental truck into a power pole. time, whether it was drugs, parked near the “He walked away alcohol or emotional issues. community police and he was arrested office at Lougheed mall, said Buis. without incident quite close to the On the way to the scene, officers scene,” said Buis. learned the suspect had driven a It only took the suspect a couple Jeep Cherokee SUV into the back minutes to seriously damage five of a police car before breaking into marked patrol cars, one unmarked
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police car used by the detachment’s anti-graffiti unit, and one van used by Citizens Crime Watch volunteers, he said. Officers took the man to Burnaby Hospital for both a medical and psychiatric evaluation. “We didn’t know what we were dealing with at the time, whether it was drugs, alcohol or emotional issues.” It appears that when the man was released from his handcuffs, he jumped up from his hospital bed and pulled down a sprinkler head, causing the ER to be flooded. Please see ‘NEVER SEEN ANYTHING’, A3
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A former Burnaby high school basketball star has lost an appeal of his sentence for weapons trafficking and counselling to commit murder. Aleksander Radjenovic, now 30, was living with his parents in New Westminster when he was sentenced in 2011 and 2012 to a total of 22 years in prison—18 years for three counts of counselling homicide and four years for the weapons charges. He appealed, claiming the total sentence was overly long and harsh. Radjenovic moved to Canada with his family at 14 from the former Yugoslavia where he witnessed the atrocities of the civil war in the early 1990s, said B.C. Court of Appeal Justice John Hall in his reasons for judgment, which were agreed to unanimously by the three-judge panel. The family settled in 1997 as landed immigrants in Burnaby where Radjenovic starred on Burnaby South secondary’s basketball and track-and-field teams. Please see LOCAL, A3