Toronto Police Service

Public outrage leads to G20 arrests

Articles / Community Safety
Jul 21, 2010 - 02:57 PM

20100721_g20_arrests.jpgA 21-year-old woman, who is alleged to have vandalized shopfronts, as well as a Toronto Police Service scout car during the G20 Summit, is facing six counts of mischief over $5,000.

Kelly Rose Pflug-Back surrendered to Peterborough police on Wednesday, July 21, just hours after D/Sgt Gary Giroux, of Toronto's G20 Investigative Team, identified her as a suspect.

Giroux has credited  the public for the success in identifying the criminals who wreaked havoc on the city during the summit.

The G20 Investigative Team has made 11 arrests, including one young offender, and laid 27 charges, including mischief, theft and assault against those identified in thousands of videos and photos being sent to police.

“It’s been so tremendously successful that demonstrates to me that the public are just as outraged as we are with regards to the conduct on Saturday (June) 26,” D/Sgt Gary Giroux said, after releasing more images [1] of people his investigative team is trying to identify.

Some of the images were previously released.

“The interest is nothing less than remarkable from the public. They’re doing it out of their own civic duty.”

Giroux points to an incident where a scout car was under attack at Queen St. and Spadina Ave. while S/Sgt Graham Queen was still inside.

“It’s offensive for the general public to see a police car attacked. In my 32 years (as an officer), it’s something I’ve never seen before.”

“The scout car was physically being taken apart by these individuals. Windows were being smashed, mirrors were torn off, back windows and side windows smashed,” he said, adding responding officers helped extract Queen from the car.

Giroux said Queen remained in the car in an effort to not further escalate the situation.

“It’s quite an overwhelming scene when you see an individual who has a bag of rocks and he is using them to take out the windows of the car,” Giroux said, of one individual police are still looking for.

“I suspect if the officer had exited the vehicle, there certainly would have been an issue with him using deadly force.”

Like others being identified, Giroux is calling for those responsible to come forward.

“My advice is to seek your lawyer’s direction and turn yourself in as soon as possible,” Giroux said.

Giroux said lawyers have been working with police to have their clients turn themselves in.

Investigators will continue to sort through 17,000 still images and video taken by the public as they continue to identify those responsible for damages and assaults on June 26. Police are still encouraging the public to submit information, images, videos via email to: g20investigativeteam@torontopolice.on.ca [2], calling a tip to 416-808-7568 or by calling the team directly at 416-808-0650.

Videos and images can be uploaded at http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/g20investigation/ [3] or can be dropped off at any Greater Toronto Area police station on a CD or DVD.

Click here to see the arrested individuals [4].

Click here for the G20 Investigative Team Facebook album [5].



Kelly Pflug-Back, 21

Toronto Police Service
  http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/

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Links in this article
  [1] http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/media/text/20100721-g20_unidentified_suspects.pdf
  [2] g20investigativeteam@torontopolice.on.ca
  [3] http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/g20investigation/
  [4] http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/media/text/20100721-g20_arrests.pdf
  [5] http://bit.ly/asflSZ