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Busy but mainly peaceful May long weekend

17-year-old injured after starting fight; bear spray used in two attacks
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While the number of calls was up over last year, Staff Sergeant Steve LeClair believes that the resort is continuing to move in the right direction when it comes to curbing violence and rowdy behaviour during the once infamous May long weekend.

"I'm generally pleased with how things went," he said. "We did have to deal constantly with visitors causing problems, but we're dealing with it the only way you can deal with it, and that's to be on top of them all the time."

The Whistler RCMP had every officer in the field, as well as officers borrowed from Squamish and one officer from Burnaby who has worked in Whistler on a regular basis. They had up to nine members of the BC Integrated Gang Task Force assisting, as well as assistance patrolling the highway.

The May long weekend has become popular for grad classes, as well as younger Lower Mainland residents. Most of the calls were regarding males in their late teens to early 20s, including numerous calls to assist hotel staff in evicting noisy partiers from hotel rooms.

All told, the RCMP answered 146 calls from May 18 through May 21. That's up significantly from 2011, where police responded to 105 calls, but it was less than the 157 calls from 2010.

Most of the calls were related to intoxication, although there was one serious altercation where a 17-year-old from Surrey was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Vancouver after being punched and hitting his head on the ground.

According to the RCMP, they removed the same 17-year-old from a property on Casabella Crescent after receiving a call from individuals staying at the property. The 17-year-old had entered the residence with a friend, and became aggressive when he was asked to leave. The RCMP responded at 4:44 a.m. on the morning of May 20, and then ticketed the male for trespassing after refusing to leave.

That afternoon at 12:40 p.m. the RCMP received a call regarding a fight in the village involving 10 males, and arrived to find the 17-year-old on the ground in a pool of blood. Talking to witnesses they found the male who punched him, an 18-year-old from Delta, in a nearby restaurant.

According to his statement, verified by witnesses, the 17-year-old and his friends became aggressive towards their group. The 17-year-old was intoxicated and attacked the male, who threw one punch in defence.

The 18-year-old was not charged.

There were also two cases of bear spray being used in village attacks.

On May 20 at 3:11 a.m. a 21-year-old male from Coquitlam and 21-year-old female from Port Coquitlam were walking home when they were approached by a group of males. A male described as dark-skinned and wearing a Gucci hat sprayed the two with bear spray.

The couple returned to their residence and police were called. However, more than an hour had passed and police were unable to locate the suspects.

The same suspects may have been involved in a second bear spray attack.

At 2 a.m. on May 21, the police received a report that roughly 10 males described as Southeast Asian approached another group and without provocation sprayed them. Only one male was hit by the spray, a 17-year-old from Burnaby who was taken to the Whistler Health Care Centre.

All told, there were seven individuals arrested on Friday night/Saturday morning for public intoxication — a 19-year-old from Surrey, a 24-year-old Whistler male, an 18-year-old Surrey male, a 17-year-old Coquitlam male, a 21-year-old New Westminster male, 17-year-old Burnaby male and a 19-year-old North Vancouver female. There were 34 bylaw tickets for open liquor, 15 provincial tickets for open liquor, five tickets for urinating in public, one ticket for obstruction and three incidents for indecent behaviour.

On Saturday there were eight arrests for public intoxication; a 22-year-old Surrey male, a 22-year-old Whistler male, a 17-year-old Surrey female, a 54-year-old Whistler male, a 23-year-old Port Moody male, two 20-year-old Surrey males and a 21-year-old Surrey male. There were 37 bylaw tickets for open liquor, seven provincial liquor tickets, four tickets for urinating in public, one ticket for obstruction and one ticket for indecent behaviour.

Female arrested for public indecency

At 1:45 a.m. on May 19 the RCMP received a call that an intoxicated female was outside a hotel flashing her breasts at groups of males.

The RCMP attended and arrested the 19-year-old female for public intoxication.

She could not produce any identification but that turned up shortly afterwards in a related call. The resident of a hotel room called police to report a possible sexual assault after they noticed a woman in another room facing theirs struggling to dress herself. The RCMP attended the room and found three males and the identification belonging to the female they arrested moments earlier. They also determined that there was no sexual assault, although she told police the next morning that she didn't remember much.

Couple lose clothes, found in hot tub

A male and a female, 19, from Port Coquitlam spent the night in a hot tub at a local hotel after they lost their clothes, and couldn't remember where they were staying. The RCMP got the call at 8:30 a.m. on May 19 from a Benchlands hotel. The couple were given towels and taken back to their respective accommodations.

Man caught in suspected drug bust

At 9:55 p.m. on May 20, the police observed a man they had taken note of heading to the stairwell of a hotel with another male, where they observed what appeared to be a drug deal.

A male was arrested and searched, turning up four bags of what is believed to be cocaine and a bag of pills believed to be MDMA (Ecstasy). He also had a scale, packaging materials and $345 in cash.

A 26-year-old from Whistler was charged with possession of a controlled substance for trafficking.

Intoxicated man in stolen vehicle

The RCMP received a report on May 21 of an intoxicated man who was stumbling around in the Spring Creek area just after 9 p.m. The police attended, and while they couldn't find the man they stopped a vehicle with New Brunswick plates.

The driver, a 19-year-old living in Whistler, later provided two samples of .260, which is over three times the legal limit. He was given a 24-hour-suspension, a 90-day driving prohibition and will appear in court in August to answer charges of impaired driving.

Things got more interesting the next day when they discovered that the vehicle was not registered to the individual. Charges of theft of motor vehicle and possession of stolen property were added to the impaired driving charge.