Dario Bartoli, 15, died after an assault in Surrey , B.C. early Saturday morning, Dec. 13, 2014.
Police are asking for help from witnesses in their investigation into the killing of Dario Bartoli, a 15-year-old who died after being attacked by a group of people in a Surrey park.
Police say Mr. Bartoli and another boy, aged 14, were assaulted early Saturday morning – around 3 a.m. – before fleeing to a nearby home. Mr. Bartoli was taken to the hospital by ambulance and died at about 10:20 a.m.
The Lower Mainland's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) then took over the investigation.
The attack occurred in or near Bakerview Park, where police investigators collected evidence on Saturday and which is located a few blocks west of the home to which the boys fled after they were assaulted.
A man who answered the door at that residence, which was identified by neighbours, said he did not want to speak to a reporter.
The park, in a South Surrey neighbourhood of mostly single-family homes, is attractive and well tended, with a children's playground and playing fields.
On Sunday, it was mostly empty other than an occasional family at the playground and people walking their dogs.
Richard Annett, who lives in a neighbouring apartment complex and was walking nearby, said groups of people regularly gather in the park, especially in the summer.
"There is a fair bit of drugs and alcohol sometimes, and unfortunately there is not too much the police can do about it," Mr. Annett said.
"They [police] will come by and pour out a couple of beers or something, but the next night it will be the same thing."
IHIT on Sunday said, through its Twitter account, that police are "looking to speak with witnesses and those who have information about the murder of Dario Bartoli."
Police have said a motive is unclear.
Mr. Bartoli was a student at Earl Marriott Secondary School. Police did not release the name of the other boy involved.
The killing is the 16th homicide of the year in Surrey, where crime and community safety were hot topics in the recent municipal election even though the rate of violent and non-violent crime in the city has been dropping for the past decade.
But high-profile slayings – including that of Julie Paskall, who died last December after being assaulted outside a hockey arena in Surrey's Newton neighbourhood, and of teenager Serena Vermeersch, whose body was found in Newton in September – kept crime worries in the public eye. Suspects have been arrested in both of those killings.
In October, then-mayoral candidate Linda Hepner – who would go on to win the November election – released a safety platform that called for adding 95 officers to the RCMP Surrey detachment and expanding access to mental-health and addictions treatment.
In a release on staffing levels in August, Surrey RCMP said it had 673 police officers serving Surrey and that 30 new members would be joining the detachment for the fiscal year of 2014-2015.