River could use more police presence
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Editor:
On Tuesday, Oct. 27, I visited Terra Nova Rural Park (at the west end of River Road) for a lunch break in my car in parking area overlooking the mouth of the Middle Arm of Fraser River and airport.
Just before 2 p.m., looking north across the water at a distance of a couple of hundred metres, I observed a small drifting aluminum boat (with outboard motor) and one single occupant in a yellow jacket standing up. Then it appeared as if this man raised a rifle or shotgun to his shoulder and fired a shot—I believe aimed towards waterfowl on the shore of Swishwash Island.
At first I wondered if this fellow in boat might be part of airport anti-bird patrol. (I later learned from a constable that he might have been a poacher.)
However, I was shocked that anyone would be discharging a firearm seemingly so close to where people were enjoying their recreation, walking /runs along the dyke.
I called 911. Richmond RCMP and a cruiser arrived in about five minutes.
After I pointed out the man in the boat to the female constable, she immediately walked over to the path by the river—and started waving both her arms in the air in the direction of the boat.
The boat then turned around and sped off towards the open water of Georgia Strait, west of the airport. Obviously, there wasn’t much a land-bound constable could do to stop or apprehend someone in a boat.
But I wondered why there wasn’t a police patrol boat nearby to launch and be quickly on the scene? It seemed to me that there is a serious hole in the police-security protective perimeter around the airport on the Middle Arm of the Fraser.
What if the man in the boat was a terrorist? This is only a short distance downstream from the taxiway of float planes—as well as the Richmond Olympic Skating Oval.
Gregory McCay
Richmond
