The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 3

BEST con AVAJLASJ mm Km A3 The Vancouver Sun, Tuesday, April 12, 1988 Knife crime figures point to growing problem on the streets If lethal blades continue to flash at current rate, 1988 will be a record year for murder by knife in Vancou ver. In less than 3 there been six confirmed homicides in the Vancouver area, four of them stab-bings. In 1987, of 26 homicides investigated by the Vancouver police department, a record 10 investigate involve a certain street culture. But there are areas where it's not wise to be at night, certain pubs where a person shouldn't flash money." Dr. Bob Chamberlain, a supervisor of emergency services at St.

Paul's Hospital, who treats knifing victims and often appears to give court testimony in knife-related crime, says, "Very few innocent bystanders get hurt in these knifing incidents. From what I see in our emergency wards and in court, it appears that a hardcore of 200 to 400 bad-ass guys keep doing it to each other. "When those guys get mad at each other, instead of duking it out, they pull knives, the new way of settling arguments. In some downtown pubs on a Friday night, there might be more than 200 concealed knives on the customers. We get the victims of those knives.

They take up a lot of our time and bed space." In 1987, Vancouver police Investigated 655 criminal offences involving knives. In addition to the 10 knifing homicides, there were 15 charges laid for attempted murder with a knife, 287 charges of robbery with an offensive weapon, 239 of assault causing bodily harm involving knives, 76 of aggravated assault with a knife and 28 of sexual assault involving the use of a knife. In February this year, the eight policing teams of the VPD, which are divided into geographical patrol units, investigated 55 criminal offences where knives were used in a direct threatening manner. There were 13 in the southeast part of the city, where there is a large transient population; 11 in the Cedar Cottage area, where street prostitution is heavy; nine in the Skid Road area, the traditional area of street violence, and six in the West End. S.Sgt.

Bob Haliburton of the North Detective Office says, "The majority of these incidents involve the people in a particular subculture but there are incidents that involve the general public, cases of robbery and sexual assault where a knife is used. "We record the incidents where we have evidence that a knife was used or the threat to use one was made. And to all our recorded instances of knife use, my instincts tell me we could add another 50 per cent for S.Sgt. Bob Law of the major-crimes division said Monday, "These things are totally unpredictable but, yes, if the current rate continues, we will beat last year's record." In an earlier interview, Sgt. Dennis Lannon, a major crimes veteran, said, "There is a definite increase in all knife-related crimes, including homicide.

Back when the gun laws were tightened up (in a 1977 Criminal Code amendment), the bad guys reached for a knife. In Vancouver it began to peak around 1984 to '85. It's still increasing here and it's a trend all across the country." Sgt. Lannon added, "In spite of the increase of knife crime, the streets of Vancouver are still safe for the average citizen. The knife crimes we knife use or threat we never hear about We often pick up street people with dirty bandages over knife wounds that were never reported." There is another factor, a positive one, that obscures the seriousness of the knife problem on Vancouver streets.

That is the increased efficiency of paramedic support service, by ambulance attendants and hospital emergency treatment. Police Chief Bob Stewart told me last year, "As bad as our statistics for knifing murders are, they would be twice as bad if it wasn't for the miracles the paramedics are pulling off. They're saving knife victims who would have been murder victims a few years ago." (Tomorrow: The knives, the knifers and the knifed.) DENNY BOYD them involved knives. Only seven of the killings were caused by gunshot, indicating that the knife has become the weapon of choice. Amigiry mom idles Death car driver at school convicted Mke- raraat gainig A 21-year-old man whose car ran Over a girl on the grounds of John Oliver high school was convicted Monday by a county court jury of There's a lot of things they do they get away with because people are afraid of them, Jeanne Eddington deaths of Eddington and David Ernest Swartz, both 32, were believed to be a murder-suicide.

Neighbors in the 15700-block 96th Avenue heard three shots just before 8 a.m. last Wednesday. Police arrived soon afterwards to find the two men lying in pools of blood in a driveway. A rifle was lying nearby. Police said it appeared both men had been drinking heavily all night when they got into a fight at a house at 15771 96th Ave.

Eddington then left, returned with a rifle, shot Swartz, then himself, police said. Eddington said the Hell's Angels are trying to make the deaths into a gang-related matter when it really had nothing to do with them. Her son did not belong to the gang and had been friends with Swartz for many years before Swartz joined, she said. "It was an argument between two young men who had been drinking. "It was not a Hell's Angel killing; it was not a gang-related killing." She said that on the night of her son's death, he was despondent over his separation from his wife Cindy, "and he was looking for a party." She said she believed her son killed himself after shooting Swartz because he feared the Hell's Angels would avenge his death and he wanted to protect his family.

By CAROL VOLKART The mother of a man who fatally shot a member of the Hell's Angels says she's going to speak out against the motorcycle gang in spite of a death threat left on her family's answering machine Monday. "Right now everybody is afraid of them," said Jeanne Eddington. "People are telling me: 'Don't do it. Stay low My mother is afraid I'll be killed, but I'll be darned if I'll run." If everyone spoke out, the gang wouldn't be able to get away with what it does, she said. "There's a lot of things they do they get away with because people are afraid of them." Her son Lynn Neil Eddington took his own life with a rifle after shooting the biker, police said.

Eddington said a message left on her answering machine Monday warned: "That bastard Neil killed one of us and you guys are next." She, said there was another threat at her son's funeral Sunday, when a biker warned the dead man's relatives: "We haven't finished with you yet." Just before the funeral began, mourners watched in shock as three bikers walked into the Valley View LI Vi jc 'A If a pmr4 ft; Vkk ail At Funeral Home chapel, approached the man's coffin and began spitting and swearing. They then left. Eddington said if anything happens to her or her family, even if it's a car accident, the Hell's Angels will be to blame. A realtor who has lived in Surrey for 31 years and is active in politics and volunteer organizations, Eddington said she has enough connections and is well enough known that if anything happened to her, there would be a tremendous crusade against the gang. She said she gave the tape of the threat to the Surrey RCMP, but has not asked for any special protection.

"They can't protect me 24 hours a day," she said. Nor will she change her own way of life. "I'm not going to carry a gun or run from them." Police said last week the shooting dangerous driving causing death. Salman Rafi, now living in Toronto, was charged after Herbir Kaur Sangha, 14, was crushed to death by the car Rafi was driving while students were celebrating the last day of school on June 25, 1986. He will be sentenced Friday.

Rafi told the court last week he did riot notice a bump when he ran over the young student on the crushed gravel playing surface. He also said he was not aware that a friend, Sam Lingham, was riding on the roof of his car at the time. Court was told the school grounds were not normally open to vehicles but the janitor had unlocked a chain on an access driveway that day to allow school board maintenance vehicles to enter. Sangha's parents have filed suit against Rafi and the Vancouver school board. Rafi, who was in the Grade 12 graduating class, said he first parked on 43rd Avenue when he arrived at school about 10 a.m.

After he had returned some books and picked up his school yearbook, he said he went outside to join friends who were autographing each others' books. Rafi said he saw two other cars parked near the school's auto body shop and decided to take his borrowed Pontiac Firebird on to the-grounds. Later, he said, when he was leaving to go home and change, he backed "slowly and cautiously" in a wide arc to avoid other students. Some student witnesses said Rafi was swerving back and forth while driving in reverse and appeared to be trying to shake Linghan off the roof. "I was just going to put it into drive when someone yelled said Rafi.

"I had no idea an accident had occurred until I saw the expressions on their faces. I looked under the car and I was shocked." BRIEFLY Guards' removal called or convicts torvf vie beating of a prisoner early Dec. 27, following a church service. Kitto has denied the allegation, saying instead he was attacked by the prisoner. A smashup of cells followed the incident, Prisoners agreed to clean up their cells in exchange for no retribution for the damage and also if Kitto and another guard were removed from the unit However, a riot erupted Dec.

28 after guards searched prisoners' cells for weapons. Cross-examined by commission counsel Len Doust, Kitto told county court Judge Ian Drost, sitting as a one-man royal commission, that he has been ostracized by fellow staff members since he started working at Oakalla seven years ago. Kitto, the safety officer in the south wing, said he was told by senior staff "to shut up" on several occasions when he spoke out about safety hazards such as weapons possibly being in prisoners' cells or tried to enforce prison rules strictly. Richmond By JOANNE MacDONALD Oakalla prisoners "won" a round when staff gave in to their demands and removed two guards from the south wing after a disturbance Dec. 27, a royal commission inquiry was told Monday.

Peter Kitto, one of the guards, told an inquiry into the Jan. 1 mass escape from Oakalla that he felt singled out when he was removed. He said he asked prison director Rene Gobillot on Dec. 30 who was running the institution, "the inmates or the staff?" "He (Gobillot) said he has to make some unpopular decisions at times and that he felt for my safety and the safety of other staff, that it was best that I be out front (in administration)," Kitto said. "I told him, what does that appear to look like, what does that do for the morale of the staff? The inmates appear to have won this round." Kitto said Gobillot replied that he couldn't "do anything until after the police investigation." Prisoners have testified at the inquiry that Kitto was involved in the to let 50 kmh school zone PETER BATTISTONI PROFESSIONAL DANCER who goes by the name of The Kid catches up on reading while pedalling uni- Uris to speak at Holocaust remembrance Writer Leon Uris will be the guest speaker Thursday night at Congregation Beth Israel when the Vancouver Jewish community observes Yom Hashoah, the day set aside to remember victims of the Holocaust Uris, author of such books as Trinity and Exodus, will discuss the topic "The Dignity and Survival of a People." Earlier in the day, a memorial service will take place at the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery on Marine Drive in New Westminster, commencing at noon.

'Alderman' opposed Burnaby council wants the Union of B.C. Municipalities to amend the Municipal Act to replace the title "alderman" with the gender-free term "councillor." Aid. Joan Sawicki, making the motion, said the term alderman excludes women, reinforces sexual stereotypes and is out step with other job titles such as MLA, school trustee, police officer, mail carrier. Sentencing date set A 56-year-old father of four found guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm on an 11-year-old girl will be sentenced May 18 by county court Judge David Campbell. Rong Ya Huang of 526 East Cordova, a former school teacher and factory worker who immigrated to Canada two years ago, assaulted the girl, who later returned to bash him with a hockey stick.

Teen suspect remanded A 17-year-old youth charged with first-degree murder of an Aldergrove woman was remanded in custody Monday for eight days for a psychiatric examination. Langley provincial court Judge Nick Friesen set aside three days in July for a hearing into the Crown's appli cycle in East Vancouver. He uses bike to keep fit. Foster's letter cited will to live By LARRY STILL The day he took his own life in a bizarre suicide involving two ballpoint pens, triple-murder suspect wall and into his heart. The jury of four men and one woman recommended that: The attorney-general's ministry should ensure that all information pertaining to the arrest of a suspect who may be mentally ill be speed stand By RICHARD SKELLY Richmond council has decided the sight of child pedestrians is more effective than signs ordering lower speed limits in making motorists slow down.

Council endorsed a staff report Monday that recommended against cutting speed limits adjacent to school grounds. Lone dissenter Aid. Alex Water-ton criticized the report for ignoring predicted increases in traffic and only emphasizing the lack of previous accidents near school grounds. "Nobody can predict when children are going to dart out," he said. By lowering the speed limit to 30 kmh, Richmond could ensure drivers would have an increased safety margin of 20 feet from the time they applied brakes to the time their vehicles stopped, Waterton added.

Unlike Vancouver, which has 30 kmh zones near schools, Richmond allows motorists to drive 50 kmh by schools and all but one playground. Since the 1950s, the municipality has opted for nationally recognized blue and white signs that warn motorists of school crosswalks and roadways. No accidents involving elementary school children happened in front of schools in 1986-1987, accord 4 forwarded to the institute conducting a 30-day psychiatric assessment; The health ministry should conduct a review of maximum-secu-ritv arrange- pen, again piercing his heart. When a juror asked how anyone could twice complete such a painful process, the pathologist said: "If someone is sufficiently disturbed to do away with himself, pain doesn't mean very much." Coroner Gerald Tilley later in the proceedings reminded witness Ter-rence Neil, the institute's director of nursing, that Foster told officials he considered suicide immediately after the killings. But the nurse said Foster, carefully assessed on entry to the institute, indicated he was not depressed or suicidal and was not considered a high suicide risk.

Questioned by lawyer Judith Wayte, representing the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission, Boutin agreed it would not be possible to make the institute 100-per-cent safe against suicide. The doctor agreed when Wayte said all possible means of suicide, including pens, clothing, sheets and electrical appliances, would have to be removed from the facility. is watched24 hours a day, he said. Asked if it would be practical, to watch all maximum-security patients at all times, Boutin said: "That would be a matter of manpower. At the moment we have double the number of remand patients we should have in theory." The jury was told Foster, 37, surrendered to police and confessed to the Dec.

12 murders of his common-law wife Joan Pilling, 34, her daughter, Linda Brewer, 12, and Brewer's friend, Megan Sue McCleary, 12. Remanded to the psychiatric institute Dec. 15 for an assessment of his fitness to stand trial and his mental state at the time of the killings, Foster killed himself 12 days later. Pathologist Dr. Lindsay Sturrock said Foster placed the sharp end of a pen against his bare chest and, with the other end against the door of a washroom, leaned heavily forward, forcing the pen between two ribs and into his heart.

When the first penetration of the heart failed to kill him, Foster repeated the process with a second Allan Foster wrote a letter indicating a determination to survive, a coroner's jury heard Monday. The letter, addressed to the Canadian Corrections Service's Pacific regional headquarters, was mailed Dec. 27 from the Forensic Psychiatric Institute, where Foster was undergoing a 30-day assessment "There have been other cases in the past where special precautions had to be put into place," Foster wrote, indicating he was fearful of reprisals within the prison system. "I am requesting that you review my situation and try to find an adequate system for my protection." Foster's letter appeared to acknowledge his own sanity and accept he likely would be found guilty of the murders. Evidence indicated Foster, facing three counts of first-degree murder, took his own life Dec.

27 by forcing two ballpoint pens through his chest FOSTER ments at the institute to ensure that patients are not left alone in the wards. Dr. Roger Boutin, senior psychiatrist at the institute, said later that all patients undergo an intensive interview on entry. They then receive a 72-hour period of "special attention" in which suicidal tendencies are assessed. Ifa patient is considered extremely cation to raise the youth to adult court.

Wendy Cochrane, 48, was found in her home at 979-264th St. early April 3. Police said she ing to the report. Nor has there been statistical evidence of a 50 kmh limit contributing to a pedestrian accident near a school or was stabbed several times..