Police in Maple Ridge, B.C., look for links in restaurant deaths
Classmates identify 19-year-old victim as Maija-Liisa Corbett
Last Updated: Friday, August 29, 2008 | 9:48 PM PT
CBC News
Police say a truck crashed through this Maple Ridge restaurant, ending up in the kitchen. (CBC) Police are canvassing businesses in a Maple Ridge, B.C., strip mall where a truck crashed into a sushi restaurant Thursday night as they search for a link between the driver and the restaurant or its patrons.
Witnesses say the driver appeared to make no effort to stop or slow down as his pickup truck sped through the strip mall parking lot, narrowly missed a concrete column, and jumped a curb before crashing through the front window of the Halu Sushi restaurant.
The B.C. Ambulance Service says the supper-hour crash killed two women, aged 19 and 46, and injured six others when patrons were trapped under the mid-sized Dodge truck.
Three of the injured, including a nine-year-old boy, were taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
The younger victim was identified as SFU student Maija-Liisa Corbett by former classmates who arrived at the scene to drop off flowers on Friday.
Maija-Liisa Corbett, left, in a photograph posted on Facebook, was identified by classmates as one of the victims of Thursday's crash. (Facebook.com) The truck's 51-year-old driver was in police custody overnight and a homicide investigation began. The RCMP is also trying to determine if alcohol, a medical problem or mechanical failure might have caused the crash.
RCMP Insp. Dale Carr said the man in custody was not known to police, and was not related to anyone in the restaurant at the time of the incident. The two victims were not related.
Carr told CBC News the driver seemed to be driving normally before the crash — and police are investigating reports the truck accelerated before hitting the restaurant.
“[The truck] failed to stop and continued on into the patron-filled restaurant and essentially drove through the entire restaurant, from the front door all the way to the back,” said Carr.
There were 45 people in the restaurant when the truck drove through the front window and ended up in the kitchen.
“The Integrated Homicide Team is coming across to take over this investigation to determine exactly what happened,” said RCMP Insp. Hilton Smee.
Candice Denoni, who saw the truck speed through the front plate-glass window, said the driver didn't use his brakes when his vehicle hopped the curb.
Other witnesses said they thought the truck sped up before hitting the restaurant. An off-duty Ridge Meadows RCMP officer was also a witness.
With files from the Canadian Press
