Crime
Lumby RCMP continues to report high number of drunk drivers
LUMBY - Lumby residents don’t seem to be getting the message when it comes to drunk driving, says the village’s top cop. Cpl. Henry Proce with the Lumby RCMP detachment says officers are arresting local residents in very high numbers for impaired driving. In the last three weeks, at least six drivers were charged with...
Neighbours fight crime with Block Watch program
CENTRAL OKANAGAN - In a world where social media provides almost instantaneous connections, an anti-crime program that relies on email and the telephone for neighbours to stay connected seems almost anachronistic. But that’s the model the Block Watch program still uses in British Columbia and local crime prevention coordinator Duane MacTavish says it is doing...
Man brought into custody after five hour standoff with Vernon RCMP
VERNON - A 70-year-old man was taken into custody Friday morning after a five-hour stand-off. Officers were called to a fourplex in the 4900 block of Old Kamloops Road just before 1 a.m. April 10 for a report of a distraught man, police said this morning. “He’d had a confrontation with a neighbour and then...
Vernon teen pulled over for drunk driving before he even has his license
VERNON - A drunk teenager was slapped with an Immediate Roadside Prohibition over the long weekend, and he doesn’t even have his driver’s license yet. The 17-year-old was caught driving erratically in the Kalamalka Road area of Coldstream on Friday, April 3, around 10:30 p.m., RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says. An officer patrolling in the...
Vernon thief caught on video not who victims expected
VERNON - Police are looking into an odd theft committed by what appears to be an unexpected culprit — an elderly woman. Footage captured by a Vernon couple’s surveillance camera shows what looks to be an elderly woman making off with a patio table shortly after 6 a.m. on April 3 in the area of...
KOOPMANS TRIAL: Court hears bizarre testimony from key witness
PENTICTON - Witness testimony in the Koopmans murder trial took on a decidedly different direction as a key witness took the stand for a second day. Bradley Martin continued his testimony today, March 5, in Penticton Supreme Court in the trial of John Ike Koopmans, who is charged with two counts of first degree murder and...
Crime spree nets Vernon man more time behind bars
VERNON - A Vernon man says he was denied detox services for the third time shortly before attempting to carjack a woman’s vehicle and breaking into a nearby home. David Arthur Bruno Sammartino, born in 1984, was sentenced in Vernon Provincial Court Wednesday, April 1, on two charges of breaking and entering, and one of...
KOOPMANS TRIAL: Accused had no ill will toward shooting victim: Friend
PENTICTON - The last witness in the John Koopmans murder trial said he’d never seen the accused show any ill will towards victim Keith Wharton. Robert Hart, a friend of Koopmans, testified if Koopmans had guns, he was unaware of it, calling him an “even-tempered man” who he had never seen angry. The double murder...
Man arrested for powering licensed grow-op with stolen electricity
CHERRYVILLE - Police found something wasn’t quite right at a licensed medical marijuana grow-op in Cherryville. RCMP say officers were already aware of the legal, 1,200 plant operation in the North Fork Road area, but had suspicions the operator was stealing electricity. Police executed a search warrant at the property March 17 and arrested one...
Police investigate second Lumby assault involving group of youths
LUMBY - Police are dealing with a second situation where someone was surrounded and assaulted by young people in Lumby. Cpl. Henry Proce says the most recent case happened March 16 when a patient at the Monashee Mews care home was confronted by several youths at the bus stop on Norris Road. The youths began...
KOOPMANS TRIAL: ‘You were there to settle a score:’ Crown
PENTICTON - Crown Prosecutor Frank Dubenski continued to pummel accused murderer John Koopmans with questions regarding Koopmans’ strange social behaviour the night three people were shot in Princeton. In Koopmans' third day on the stand in his own defence today, March 30, Dubenski demanded to know why he would walk for miles late in the...
Osoyoos incidents keep RCMP busy
PENTICTON - An illegal border crossing and two stolen vehicles kept Osoyoos RCMP busy overnight March 30 and throughout the following day in two separate incidents. Police were alerted by the U.S. Border Patrol just before 10 p.m. Monday of three males illegally crossing the U.S. - Canada border near Highway 3 on Anarchist Mountain....
Trial begins for man accused in Princeton double homicide
PENTICTON - The trial of a man accused of a double homicide and attempted murder of a third individual near Princeton in 2013 begins in Penticton this morning. The jury trial of John Ike Koopmans is slated to get underway in Penticton Supreme Court this morning, Feb.16. Koopmans was charged in 2013 with two counts...
KOOPMANS TRIAL: Crown challenges Koopmans’ story
"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL THERE IS NO .357 THERE — YOU SENT THEM ON A WILD GOOSE CHASE." PENTICTON - Crown Prosecutor Frank Dubenski hammered accused murderer John Ike Koopmans during cross examination today with questions about a missing handgun Koopmans said he disposed of long before a similar weapon was used once kill two...
KOOPMANS TRIAL: Police waited nearly three hours to inspect crime scene amid chaos
PENTICTON - Police arriving on scene following a report of a double homicide in Princeton found themselves overwhelmed by a chaotic scene, court was told Wednesday. A police officer who acted as primary investigator for the homicides said he found the suspected murder weapon and produced for the jury today, March 25, photographic evidence that...