Ruled by 'wild animals'
A murder is unsolved. Young people fear going out at night. One councillor says a group of 14 or 15 kids is holding a community of 11,000 people to ransom
Glenda Luymes, with files from Lena Sin
The Province Thursday, September 20, 2007

Denise Pickford, her husband, Bob, and daughter, Sarah, return to the park in which the family's son was beaten up in a swarming attack by a large group of teens. The family is leaving Aldergrove, where some residents believe a curfew should be imposed on teens.

Two years after the attack, he still doesn't know what he did to provoke them.

The park near the Aldergrove high school was quiet when he arrived that September night.

The friends he was planning to meet were late, but in the gathering darkness he could see a group of about 10 teens across the playing field. After waiting a few minutes on a park bench, he walked over to introduce himself.

It happened fast. Someone pushed him. He ended up sprawled on the grass.

"This is what you get for being new to Aldergrove," a voice said.

Then they were all around him, kicking. A blow to his face, his back, his chest. Another to his face.

He felt his shoes being taken off. Rough hands reached into his pockets to steal his wallet and cellphone.

When they finally left, the park was quiet again.

It hurt to walk, so he crawled across the grass to 29th Avenue and tried to flag down a car.

Two young women stopped. They seemed scared, but they agreed to drive him to Langley Memorial Hospital. On the way, he borrowed a phone and called his parents.

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When Denise Pickford saw her stepson, she didn't recognize him.

"His face was purple and swollen," she recalls. "It looked like wild animals had attacked him."

As she talks about the night of the swarming, Pickford is preparing to leave the Fraser Valley and move her family to a small town in northern B.C. Police have never laid charges against the teens who attacked her stepson, and Aldergrove -- the quiet community that two years ago seemed like such a great place to raise a family -- no longer feels safe, she says as she packs moving boxes.

"People shouldn't have to feel afraid."

But even police admit people do seem to be afraid in Aldergrove -- and it's not hard to understand why.

In April, the body of 19-year-old Kyle Marud was found behind the local Safeway. In his lifeless hands, he held a bag of chips he had purchased at the nearby 7-Eleven.

Friends speculate Kyle was taking a shortcut home from the convenience store when he was killed for the wad of cash he was carrying. He had just received his paycheque the day before and had a habit of flashing his money around.

The case remains unsolved, confirms Cpl. Dale Carr of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

The event has contributed to a climate of fear in the small community on the eastern edge of Langley Township.

And fear seems to have created more crime.

Last week, the Lower Mainland was shocked by a shooting outside a Langley school believed to have involved a small-time youth gang calling itself Eight Five Six, or EFS, after the first three digits of every Aldergrove telephone number.

Police first became aware of EFS about a year ago. The group of about 10 to 15 males in their late teens and early 20s is allegedly involved in petty crime, vandalism, assault and selling drugs.

"These are individuals that want to be looked at as major criminals -- certainly we don't put them in that category. We wouldn't even call them a gang," says Langley RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen. "But they're creating issues for us as a police agency and they're creating issues for law-abiding members of the community."

Langley Township Coun. Kim Richter says the situation has slowly become more serious, with many of the EFS members' younger siblings starting their own crew called Straight Out of Aldergrove, or SOA.

Some residents have responded by calling for a curfew between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. for kids under 18. Richter isn't sure she agrees with that, but she's definitely concerned.

"Here we have a group of 14 or 15 kids holding a community of 11,000 people to ransom," she says.

- - -

It's Friday night on the Aldergrove strip, and things are about to get interesting.

Teens meet at the 7-Eleven, a popular hangout along Fraser Highway. Others drift in and out of the youth drop-in centre across the street.

A group of boys lines up around a garbage dumpster. A sharp crack splits the night air and flames shoot from the dumpster. The boys whoop and shout, before a police SUV pulls up, forcing the group to dissipate. An officer gets out to talk to the kids left behind, but eventually everyone goes their own way.

For the kids who saw it happen, it's big news. They'll talk about the dumpster drama for days to come -- just like they still talk about the time so-and-so's brother had his wallet stolen by the gang, and the time a friend was punched up for talking back to them.

Andrew, a skinny teen who sometimes hangs out at the youth drop-in centre near the 7-Eleven, says he never walks alone at night and never makes eye contact with anyone associated with EFS or SOA.

"They're tough guys, violent people. If you have something they want, they'll take it," he says.

Almost everyone knows someone who's had a nasty run-in with the gang, says Nathan, another teen. "I don't mind looking over my shoulder. It keeps me on my toes."

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Aldergrove is not unique. In communities across B.C., youth crime is keeping people on their toes.

In any number of places, people are struggling to understand the scope of the problem while they also deal with its impact.

In the fall of 2005, the youth-gang problem came up at the Interministry Committee on the Prevention of Youth Violence, a provincial government-led group that meets once every three months and includes representatives from various federal and provincial ministries, local governments, school districts and police forces.

In response to concerns, the committee decided to develop a youth- gang prevention strategy and applied to the National Crime Prevention Centre for funding, explains Jamie Lipp of the provincial Ministry of Public Safety.

In August 2006, the four-year, $2-million strategy got under way with a pilot project in seven communities with an identified need and the capacity to support the project.

Aldergrove isn't included in the strategy because "the issues we're hearing about now we weren't hearing about in 2005," says Lipp. "But the strategy we've developed, and what we're learning as a result, is something that's going to benefit all communities."

In each of the seven communities, a needs assessment is in progress to determine the "gaps" in services, while a co-ordinator is working toward developing and implementing a community action plan to address the youth gang problem.

"The amount of youth actually involved in gangs is a very small number," says Lipp. "Yet the violence and the crime affects all of us. We all have a responsibility to ensure the safety and security of our children and youth. Everyone has a role to play."

- - -

Although Aldergrove certainly doesn't fall within his jurisdiction, Vancouver police Det.-Const. Elvis Bellia will play a role in the community's policing.

Some 400,000 people are expected to descend on English Bay for Vancouver's annual summer fireworks show, and Bellia, along with other members of the Vancouver police youth squad, is charged with making sure no one gets jumped, beaten or stabbed too badly before, during or after the show.

It's only 7 p.m., five minutes into Bellia's shift, and he's already spotted trouble.

A kid wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Free L'il J" has shown up with two of his buddies -- just like Langley RCMP warned they would.

"I hate working these nights," says Bellia as he splits from his partners to tail the kids.

The three are believed to be members of EFS.

Langley RCMP have warned Vancouver police they might show up at the fireworks to jump another kid, and it's not information police take lightly -- especially since the Mounties said EFS is believed responsible for a shooting earlier in the week and have been caught selling dope in the Downtown Eastside.

Had the boy not been advertising his support for "L'il J" -- or Jason Wallace, an 18-year-old charged with attempted murder for shooting and stabbing a teen at a grad party in Langley -- Bellia likely wouldn't have recognized him.

Up and down Robson Street the teens walk. Bellia follows, tasked with the tedious job of waiting for them to do something idiotic.

After 30 minutes, Bellia decides he's had enough. Two kids from another youth gang, the East Van Soldiers, have caught his eye and he darts off to arrest them for breaching a no-contact order.

A second surveillance team is sent in to keep an eye on the EFS teens.

- - -

Back in Aldergrove, regular citizens are also doing their part to combat crime.

Dave Callaghan volunteers at the youth drop-in centre called Building 272.

"This is Aldergrove we're talking about -- not the streets of New York City. But I wouldn't want to be a teen walking around here," he says.

Callaghan is the first to admit that the drop-in centre itself is not the answer to Aldergrove's problems, but "maybe it's just a little part of it," he says.

Volunteers at the centre do their best to provide a safe place for teens to gather. They listen to their stories -- often in amazement. And they try to encourage them to make positive choices.

On the wall next to the centre's single bathroom is a faded sign. The building was once the home of the Aldergrove Star newspaper and the old sign reads "The Aldergrove Star" in large letters, and beneath that, "Illegitimus non carborundum."

The Latin phrase is usually taken to mean: "Don't let the bastards grind you down."

Just who the sign was meant to encourage is unknown, says Callaghan.

But it seems apt.

gluymes@png.canwest.com