LOCAL MAN FACES SEX CHARGES
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CONFESSION OF A DRUNK DRIVER
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ORGANIC MILK BIG AT LOCAL DAIRY
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BCIT was in disaster mode this week. See Page A3
FRIDAY
JUNE 6 2014 www.burnabynewsleader.com
Was barrier unsafe? Questions raised after cyclist seriously injured in crash Wanda Chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Burnaby RCMP officers pay solemn tribute to Terry Tomfohr, a constable at the detachment who died while on duty 47 years ago. A remembrance service was held at a memorial cairn in front of the detachment on Tuesday.
Fallen officer stirs memories 47 years on Mario Bartel
photo@burnabynewsleader.com
Hardly anyone at Burnaby’s RCMP detachment knew Terry Tomfohr when he died. Almost five decades later, nobody at the detachment can forget him. Tomfohr was a fresh-faced constable just three weeks into his first posting out of training at the force’s depot in Regina when he perished. He plummeted over a cliff while chasing some youths who had been harassing an elderly woman at her home in the Capitol Hill area. He was the first, and only, member
of the Burnaby detachment to be ago the memorial was upgraded to a killed while on duty. large cairn. On Tuesday, members of the Delores Jackson was a secretary detachment gathered in orderly in the traffic office when Tomfohr ranks, along with died on June 3, 1967. representatives When she reported from city council, for her shift, the Al Lund, retired officer Burnaby-Deer sense of loss in the We’d never lost anybody. Lake MLA Kathy detachment was Everybody was shocked. Corrigan and a pair palpable. of pipers, to pay tribute to Tomfohr. “It was pretty traumatic,” said The brief ceremony has been an Jackson, who dabbed tears during annual rite. In 2002 a permanent the service. memorial was constructed at the Tomfohr’s body wasn’t found base of the flagpoles in front of the until the next morning after a detachment’s entrance. Two years massive search overnight. The effort
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also turned up the remains of a young boy who had fallen over the same cliff years earlier. Al Lund, a retired officer who worked in the traffic division at the time, said everyone in the detachment was surprised they’d lost one of their own. “We’d never lost anybody,” said Lund. “Everybody was shocked.” Even though Tomfohr hadn’t been a part of the Burnaby RCMP long enough to make much of an impression, Jackson said it was an honour to be able to continue to remember him.
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A local cycling advocate is questioning the safety of a traffic diversion barrier in North Burnaby after a woman apparently crashed into it while cycling early Monday morning. The 39-year-old Vancouver resident is in hospital after running into the barrier near Esmond Street and Cambridge Avenue. An area resident called 911 on June 2 at about 5:30 a.m. after discovering a female cyclist lying next to the barrier, say Burnaby RCMP. She was unconscious and showed signs of a severe head injury. Police believe she was not wearing a helmet nor had any lights on her bike as neither were found at the scene, said Burnaby RCMP Staff Sgt. Major John Buis. The woman was rushed to Vancouver General Hospital where she remains in serious but stable condition. Police believe she had been cycling southbound on Esmond and hit the traffic barrier in the intersection. see ENGINEERING, A3