Metro Vancouver moms concerned about group of youths assaulting people at random

PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. -

Warning: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing. 

A group of parents afraid for their children’s safety—and their own—has banded together to find ways to stop random violence.

A Port Coquitlam mother, whom CTV News is calling Beth, said her preteen daughter was swarmed and brutally beaten. Since the incidents involved youths, CTV News cannot identify the parent.

“(They) savagely gang beat her really, really badly. They pulled out chunks of her hair. Her ears looked like boxer ears. They broke all her fake nails off one hand. Yeah, she was covered in blood, super bruised and beaten and obviously upset,” Beth said.

She’s able to describe what happened because she saw the assault on video.

The incident happened in late June at Port Coquitlam’s Lions Park.

“It’s not just about a victim. It's about this being a problem in our community that's happening to people all over the place for a multitude of different reasons,” Beth said.

Another mother, whom CTV News is calling Denise, said her son was jumped while he was fishing at the Coquitlam River at the same park.

She said her son called her for help and she was able to get to the scene relatively quickly, where she confronted the youths.

Since she saw the youths who targeted her son, she was shocked when she saw the same youths appear in videos assaulting Beth’s daughter.

“You can imagine my dismay when I found out a year later, that at the same park, the same youths had lured and viciously beat another youth in our community. I was devastated,” Denise said.

From their conversations with other parents, they believe it is the same group of youths carrying out these random attacks.

“I think they're doing it partly for notoriety. They're filming it and putting it on social media. I think they're aspiring to be gangsters. They think it's cool. They think it's going to make them friends and be 'internet famous,'” Beth said.

MORE THAN A THOUSAND SIGNATURES GARNERED

Several parents got together and started Tri-Cities Safe Streets in an effort to make their communities safer.

They’ve started a petition, which has now garnered more than a thousand signatures.

The petition outlines steps local government, school districts and police can take, including increasing police presence, adding emergency phones, expanding education programs to deter youth from gang initiation, focusing on youth outreach and mentorship, and enhancing surveillance.

“So, we're not looking to punish them. We're looking to help them change for the better so they can be successful members of society and not have to fall back to these patterns that are hurting people all over the place,” Beth said.

CTV News has reached out to the three Tri-Cities mayors and Coquitlam RCMP. Many did not respond in time for deadline and one mayor was away.

Tri-Cities Safe Streets hopes their requests will not be ignored.

“It's only a matter of time before somebody becomes disabled or is killed through this happening and it needs to be taken seriously,” Beth said.

They are hoping for a meeting with the three mayors soon.