'Justice delayed is justice denied': Outrage that no charges laid in Burnaby crash that killed 2 teens

BURNABY -

Friends and families of two teenagers who were killed in a crash are speechless after learning the driver and passenger who caused the crash are walking free in the community.

The fatal collision happened the night of July 26.

Metro Vancouver Transit Police said officers tried to pull over a white sedan a few blocks from the crash site. They did not say what prompted them to attempt a traffic stop.

A witness told CTV News they saw the white sedan speeding through the intersection at 10th Avenue and 6th Street in Burnaby, just moments before the crash.

Yasbirat Ytatek, 17, and Samir Ali, 18, later died in hospital from their injuries.

Moges Seblehiwot, president of Ethiopian Affairs and family friend of the Ytateks, said the parents of both teens are in agony.

“They're in deep pain. So I don't know how they are going to be healed from such a horrible situation,” he said.

The grief only heightened after learning the male driver and female passenger in the fleeing vehicle have been released from police custody with several conditions, including a curfew, and a promise to appear in court in November.

Police have recommended charges of prohibited driving, dangerous driving causing death and flight from police but those have not been approved by Crown counsel – and Seblehiwot and others say they don’t understand why that has not happened yet.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Seblehiwot said. “We demand justice, as soon as possible. And these people, these families are suffering now: they can't work, they are losing their homes, they are losing their lives.”

MVTP explained the court date is set months from now to make sure "investigators have a sufficient amount of time to gather and process evidence."

"As you can imagine, a file this significant and the fact that multiple agencies are involved, would naturally take a bit longer to piece together," Const. Amanda Steed said in an emailed statement. 

Kash Heed, a former police chief and former minister of public safety and solicitor general, said he is also bewildered as to why the suspects were released without charges.

“The credibility of the police and the prosecution is now being looked at when you release to people you don't even charge them at the outset with killing two people. I find that absolutely absurd with the laws here in British Columbia and in Canada,” he said.

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. is also involved, investigating whether there was a police pursuit and if that was a factor in the collision.

Heed said based on the preliminary information about this incident, there was no need for a police pursuit.

“The information coming forward that that was a fail to stop, that is just a motor vehicle act offence, it is not a criminal code offence whatsoever,” he told CTV News. “There is no justification or reasonableness as to why the officers would initiate the pursuit.”

He said the IIO investigation would be critical in determining whether the officers involved followed procedures.

“The laws in Canada are adequate. We don't have to reinvent them. We have to make sure that the police officers that are protecting the public are following those procedures following those laws. And if they're not, the punishment has to be the extent that it's going to deter other police officers from disregarding the policy,” he said.

A candlelight vigil is planned for Monday evening at 7 p.m. at the crash site.

GoFundMe campaigns have been launched to support Ytatek’s family and Ali’s family.