Cops use You Tube to nab stabbing suspect

[RoboChrist]

TORONTO - In what is believed to be a Canadian first, police in Hamilton are expected to announce today an arrest in a fatal stabbing that was the subject of a posting to the YouTube video-sharing Internet site.

''This is the first time Hamilton police have used this kind of technology as an investigative tool and, it is the first time any law enforcement has used this strategy to further an investigation,'' the force said in a release Wednesday.

Hamilton police did not reveal the name of the person arrested, saying the case would be fleshed out at this morning's news conference.

Earlier this month, Hamilton investigators uploaded to YouTube a 1:12-minute clip of security camera footage from Club 77, a downtown concert venue across from which 22-year-old Ryan Milner and a friend were knifed in a parking lot around 1:25 a.m. Nov. 17.

Milner, who was from nearby Grimsby, Ont., died later in hospital. His friend survived.

The murder took place after a Nov. 16 performance by hip-hop artist Sean Price.

Police decided to post the clip to YouTube because most of the concertgoers were in their late teens or early 20s, a demographic that frequently visits the website, which allows users to upload and share all manner of brief video clips.

According to a story in the Hamilton Spectator, police recovered a black and white baseball hat with the word ''Joker'' written across the front in the parking lot where Milner was stabbed.

The grainy, colour scene uploaded to YouTube features a man wearing the hat - who is bulky and clad in a black and white-striped T-shirt - walking into Club 77 at 11:14 p.m. Nov.16, emptying his pockets and being patted down by a bouncer.

The video continues with shots of a second man, who appears to be accompanying the first. Police had also hoped to contact him.

It is not clear if either of the men is the person arrested.

Not everyone approved of the police's innovative use of the Internet.

YouTube features a comment section that allows visitors to post their comments about video clips. In the section attached to the Hamilton video, commenters bickered over whether the police were right to post the footage to the web.




A screen-grab from YouTube shows surveillance video taken at a hip-hop club where a 22-year-old man was killed.
Photograph by : Canadian Press


kpatrick@nationalpost.com

[ryanstanley]

i dont see how that could help them

what does the video being on youtube accomplish? are they trying to get people to call them if they see the guy in the video or something?

they could at least clarify what the point is

[i_wanna_les_paul]

Originally posted by ryanstanley i dont see how that could help them what does the video being on youtube accomplish? are they trying to get people to call them if they see the guy in the video or something? they could at least clarify what the point is

I agree. This story is disjointed at best and could use some clarification as to what was really accomplished other than putting a grainy video on YouTube.

Dustin

[RoboChrist]

They basically used You Tube as an internet TIPS hotline...a witness or someone who knew he suspect(s) must have contacted the police and provided information. I don't know man...I can bet that every police force in North America knows about this "innovative" use of the internet by now.