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Vancouver hockey riot prosecution to begin

Actors portray the "kissing couple" from the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles. File photo. UPI/Jim Ruymen
Actors portray the "kissing couple" from the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles. File photo. UPI/Jim Ruymen | License Photo

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Court proceedings begin in Vancouver, Canada, this month for scores of people arrested for rioting over a lost hockey championship in June, police said.

Inspector Les Yeo told reporters prosecution documents were ready for 40 people arrested as a result of the June 15 mayhem when the Vancouver Canucks failed to win the NHL's Stanley Cup championship, the Vancouver Sun reported Tuesday.

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Yeo said formal charges were near completion for another 51 suspects. He said 65 males and 14 females have turned themselves in so far, but as many as 700 others will be investigated during the next two years.

"We're taking our time, doing it right and holding people accountable for what they did so we get the guilty pleas," Yeo said. "There is no potential for error; that is exactly why we're taking our time."

Charges range from arson, assault and criminal mischief to participating in a riot, the report said.

Police said they had more than 30 terabytes of riot-related pictures and videos, or the equivalent of 7,500 DVDs. The force worked with University of Indianapolis video scientists to identify suspects, the Sun said.

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"We … have the ability to identify a rioter where we only have one shot of a leg kicking a store window, and, again, we track them from another location," Yeo said.

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