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Whistlerites stabbed in village

Woman killed in fall on Pemberton Ice Cap

A long-time local DJ and two friends were the victims of a stabbing attack in Whistler Village this Victoria Day weekend.

The three were walking to a friend’s house around 3:15 a.m. Saturday from a local nightclub where Rosco had been spinning when the attack took place.

“It was a great night,” said Rosco, who doesn’t want his real name used for fear of retaliation.

“…The first wave of them we saw was about 10 to 12 individuals, and as we were walking they spread out and almost formed a wall… so that it wouldn’t be easy to get by.

“Then as we were walking one of them stuck his shoulder out and knocked my shoulder with it… and as I turned around and said, ‘hey guys’ there was three guys on me and one of them grabbed my backpack and the other two threw me to the ground.

“There was no (heated) exchange, there was no fight. It wasn’t like we started something…. We were walking and these guys grabbed onto me.”

Rosco said he was kicked and beaten until he lost consciousness, twice.

“I just felt an incredible amount of kicks coming from every side and I just did my best to keep my head covered and before too long I lost consciousness,” said Rosco.

His friends were also attacked.

Rosco was stabbed twice, once in the ribs and once in the lower stomach. One friend was stabbed in the back, just a centimetre from his spinal column, while the other was stabbed in the stomach area. They think the weapon was a screwdriver.

As the attack continued Rosco said his friends fought back as much as they could, all the while yelling to try and get help and to try and convince their assailants to leave-off.

During the melee Rosco said he realized his backpack with about $7,000 worth of DJ equipment in it was missing.

When one of the attackers began to run away Rosco, his shirt torn, bleeding profusely from his face and abdominal stab wounds, and missing his shoes, gave chase.

He said he tried to stop the cab they jumped into but the cab driver wouldn’t stop.

Another cab driver alerted police and emergency personnel were on scene within minutes. Rosco and his friends were taken to the Whistler Health Care Centre where they were treated for several hours before being released.

“I am shocked,” said Rosco of the attack, adding that despite the resort’s reputation for trouble on the May long weekend that has never been his experience.

Said his friend: “We are all long-time Whistler residents and nothing like this has ever happened to us.

“…We didn’t do anything at all to even precipitate it.”

According to an RCMP press release a third group was responsible for the stabbing and the theft and the attack was part of a brawl that started from a heated exchange.

But Rosco and his friends claim there was no third group involved and they did nothing to start the fight.

The investigation is continuing. No one from the RCMP was available to discuss the incident yesterday.

RCMP had even more officers on duty for the Victoria Day long weekend than last year as they prepared for what traditionally is a busy time. On Friday over-night there were 10 extra officers patrolling the Village Stroll area, where the stabbing occurred.

Woman killed on glacier

A 34-year-old Whistler women died this weekend when the blanket she was sitting on slid down a slope on the Pemberton Ice Cap and she fell about 30 metres.

Another women with her managed to get off the blanket as it slipped. It’s believed that the women were part of a group camping overnight and they got up to watch the sunrise.

The slope may have been particularly slippery thanks to warm daytime temperatures melting the surface, followed by re-freezing of the surface overnight.

Snowmobilers quickly arrived on the scene and performed CPR but were unable to resuscitate the women.

The woman’s name has not been released.