A 54-year-old Burnaby man is one of two men recently arrested for their alleged role in a series of attacks against students and staff of the Justice Institute of B.C. several years ago.
The four-year long investigation focused on targeted attacks against 15 victims connected to the Justice Institute B.C. Police allege the suspects shot at and set fire to homes, vehicles or property owned by the victims between April 2001 and January 2012 – four of the 23 incidents were in Burnaby, according to a media release from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.
“In July 2011, a threatening email was received by the (Justice Institute). The email referenced nine individuals. All but one of those individuals had their homes or vehicles targeted in the preceding months,” stated the media release.
Through the investigation, which involved police departments from all over the Lower Mainland, police determined an ICBC employee had searched the licence plate numbers for all 15 victims, providing them with each individuals’ personal information, according to the release.
The investigation caught a break in January 2012 with the identification of the person police believed had orchestrated the arsons and shootings after three suspects in one of the arsons were identified and further investigated.
For more than two years, no new attacks were reported.
And then, between Dec. 31, 2014 and Jan. 13, 2015, several of the original victims received “suspicious letters in the mail. One of the letters contained a warning that attacks would resume in the new year,” according to the release.
The investigation was renewed, and earlier this month, police secured charges against two men.
Burnaby resident Thurman Ronley Taffe and Langley resident Vincent Eric Gia-Hwa Cheung, 40, were arrested on Sept. 18.
Taffe is charged with one count of intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire or explosion to a home.
Cheung, who police allege orchestrated the operation, is facing 23 charges, including intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire or explosion to a vehicle; intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire or explosion to a home; intentionally discharging a firearm into or at a vehicle; intentionally discharging a firearm into or at a place knowing that or being reckless as to whether another person is present in that dwelling; intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire or explosion to a trailer; and intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire or explosion to property within a residence.
Both men remain in custody at this time.
