Murder charge laid in stabbing of teen on transit bus in Surrey, B.C.

A murder charge has been laid in the fatal stabbing of a teenager on a transit bus in Surrey last week.

According to online court records, Kaiden Brady Robert Mintenko, born in 2003, has been charged in the case and was scheduled to appear in court for a bail hearing Monday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference, officials from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said a 20-year-old suspect from Burnaby had been taken into custody on Sunday.

Police did not name the suspect during their news conference, but confirmed later that Mintenko had been charged with second-degree murder.

The homicide in question happened aboard a bus on King George Boulevard around 9:30 p.m. on the night of April 11.

Seventeen-year-old Ethan Bespflug was on his way home after meeting up with friends in Surrey, but he never made it. According to his family, he texted a friend and expressed that he was feeling unsafe shortly before the stabbing occurred. 

Bespflug's mother, Holly Indridson, said she felt relief when she got the phone call from homicide investigators with news a suspect had been caught.

"I think it gives me some relief knowing that that person is not out there just living a free life that he wants because, you know, it does help a lot. Because you take a life, now you're gonna serve life, I'm hoping," she told CTV News.

IHIT said Monday that investigators are still working to determine the relationship between Bespflug and his accused murderer, but that the attack was not random.

The teen's family has told reporters that Bespflug encountered two people on the bus – a boy and a girl – and that the girl "didn't like him."

When pressed at the news conference, IHIT spokesperson Sgt. Timothy Pierotti said the accused and the victim were known to each other "through a third party."

He also added that the arrested suspect was "known to police."

Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards, the officer in charge of the Surrey RCMP, described Bespflug's death as "heartbreaking."

"After all these years of being a police officer, I still struggle with the senselessness of certain crimes," Edwards said. "This is one of those crimes."

Bespflug's killing was just the most shocking in a recent string of violent events on transit that have prompted condemnation from TransLink officials and increased police patrols on transit in Surrey. 

Both Edwards and Dave Jones, the chief of Metro Vancouver Transit Police, sought to reassure the public that police are working to address the recent spate of violence.

Each man noted that his respective agency has stepped up patrols in the wake of Bespflug's death, and Jones said the MVTP has been investigating potential connections between specific attacks and hasn't found any.

"My emphasis here is this is an anomaly, the number of events that have occurred of this type of nature on the transit system," Jones said. "There was no commonality between all of the events that have occurred – the separate incidents that have occurred."

As for Indridson, she would like to see an end to all the violent attacks.

"Stop attacking each other online, stop attacking each other every day in so many different ways. Stop attacking each other," she pleaded.

The family is holding a candlelight vigil near where the attack happened at 100th Avenue and King George Boulevard Tuesday at 7 p.m. to raise awareness about the senseless violence.