STANLEY CUP RIOT: Good Samaritan who was beaten forgives attackers

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It was a night that changed his life forever.

Five years following the Stanley Cup Riot, Robert MacKay is moving on with his life after being attacked for trying to stop the chaos.

Shortly after the game ended on June 15th, 2011 a large crowd gathered outside The Bay on Granville Street. There was shouting, small fires were being lit in the area and people were taking repeated runs to try and break the windows.

“Once the windows were smashed everyone’s energy heightened and that’s when it became more frightening and serious at that point,” says MacKay.

He stepped in to try and calm the crowd but it didn’t work. The now 41-year-old was punched, kicked and taken to the ground by a group of more than a dozen people who hovered over him. And after all this time, he doesn’t have any hard feelings. “I think they got caught up in the heat of the moment — it may not be something they do normally. For sure, I’m not holding a grudge on anyone.”

However, he does admit it took him years to get over what happened. “As soon as I thought it was over or I was over it then there would be another story or something else or an award that someone would present to me that would re-open it up. And then the court cases happened… as soon as you think you got over one hump then there was something else that kept on bringing the story back to life.”

We asked MacKay whether the night of the Riot has left him fearful of similar events in the future. “If there was a big event that happened in Vancouver, I wouldn’t be scared to go attend it. But mind you, I don’t know if I would step in like how I did either. I’d probably walk away from the whole matter long before I even reach that point.”

MacKay says he didn’t have serious physical injuries following the beating, adding it look longer to cope with it psychologically but he’s now happy to put it past him.