Mounties set up command post outside Newton Arena
Posted January 2, 2014 10:17 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS1130) – The RCMP has returned to the spot where a 53-year-old hockey mom was attacked outside the Newton Arena on Sunday.
Mounties are kicking off a two-day blitz, setting up a command post outside the arena, where Julie Paskall was waiting for her son when she was viciously attacked during a robbery.
It appears the attack was random and unprovoked. Paskall later died of her injuries.
Candles, flowers, and even a Matheson Secondary hockey jersey covered with condolences are laid out at a memorial outside of the arena. People have been stopping by to grieve and share their sympathies after Paskall’s death.
Len and Rita left a small token this morning, overcome by emotion.
“I live in the community and it could have been me,” says Rita.
Len is alarmed at the violence and growing amount of crime in the community.
“I kind of feel for the police,” he tells us. “I mean, they can’t be everywhere and they can’t do everything. They’re doing the best that they can with the resources that they have, and it’s unfortunate that it takes something like this to move a community.”
Others in the community say they try to stay away from the area.
“There’s people in the park right here [who] do drugs; you can see them doing drugs. They smoke crack, there are needles in the park… nobody does anything about it. They’re all here — they look in our windows while we work out,” says another woman who stopped at the memorial today.
Homicide investigators say they need help from the public to solve this crime; that’s why they’re setting up the command post.
Mounties will continue to campaign on Saturday, canvassing the neighbourhood and putting up posters.
