Case Fearless pub patrons help police capture wanted man A TEAM of savvy business-pcople, quick- thinking police officers and fearless North Shore citizens unwittingly combined efforts to foil a wanted man Jan. 13. By Kate Zimmerman Contributing Writer “It was an excellent effort by everybody,” said North Vancouver RCMP Insp. Jamie Graham. - Santino Bruno Ciccozzi, 32, of no fixed address, “was arrested on a Canada-wide parole violation con- cerning a fraud investigation. He is charged with one . count of possession of counterfeit money. three counts Sof uttering counterfeit money and one count of resist- ing a peace officer. He appeared in North Vancouver “provincial court Jan. 17 and was remanded into cus- __ lody. He is scheduled to return to court Jan. 31, ~The police were tipped off to the location of the “alle ged counterfeiter when they were called to North Vancouver's Pemberton Station beer and wine store - and. pub, where the suspect had tried to make a pur- chase with a phony U.S. $20 bill. _.When two officers arrived and began speaking to Ciccozzi, he attempted. to avoid arrest by bolting : _througha set of locked double doors. _ One of the pub owners, Jason Troll, tried to grab the : “suspect ‘around the waist and received two blows to his head. The suspect got away and ran through the pub, scattering furniture in his wake. : That's when James Anderson and Scott Leeson got = nto the act. “We heard a big noise and the guy came “running around the corner,’ * Anderson, a regular ‘patron, recalled. “We heard Jason say.’ Stop him’ so we “tackled him down. aa MWe, a a half-nelson on him and got his hands THE: “NORTH ‘Vancouver “RCMP are’ “seeking witnesses 12:30 acm. “vicinity of the Dairy Queen located t indicated there was one minor’ afteran- apparent random _ Shooting, early Saturday. morn- cing that ‘almost. seriously “injured the passenger of a car on 2 Lynn, Valley Road. By? Anna ‘Marie D’ Angelo News Reporte ter* The 21-year-old womin passen- ger, sustained minor cuts to her hand after what is suspected to have been ‘a bullet. smashed through the ‘s side: widow of a: Honda Accord . ESI, hit the dash and exited near the driver? s door outside mirror. | Said’ the driver and woman's fie ce, Graeme Lempriere, “She is lucky shé is not dead.” sc) Lempriere, 24, had turned Teft ‘off. Mountain. Highway onto Lynn Malley Road at approximately +,. He heard two shots fired in the hole” ‘in the nearby strip mall inthe 1200- mirror. —r block of Lynn Valley Road. He turned towards the noise when the third shot blew out the car indow. . “was just shock and panic ‘from there’... [twas four inches _from her head. This. is very ‘seri- ous,” said Lempriere. who added that there was shrapnel in his hand asa result of the incident. tired” call. investigating.” tol, _ gun.” “We have not confirmed if it’s We are uctiveiy said Dickson. an actual bullet. But said Lempriere, an explosion. That was no air pis- that was no rock, around his back,” said the 672" (188 em) Anderson, a former football and hockey player. Troll marvelled at the man’s strength. “He fiterally hauled James and Scout, who are very big gentlemen, 20 feet (6 m).” According to Troll, another police officer then entered the fray. jumping en top of the heap of Anderson, Leeson, pub manager Kevin Stewart and Ciccozzi. A second police officer caught up with the suspect and sprayed him in the face with O.C., a Mace- like substance. “After that, he calmed down,” also got a mouthful of the spray. The 36-year-old North Shore resident thought Ciccozzi, who is 6 feet (183 cm) tall and 210 pounds (94 kg), had just tried to rob the beer and wine store. Anderson didn’t have much chance to consider whether he might be endangering himself as he sprang to the aid of the police. He still doesn’t know whether Ciccozzi was carrying a weapon, though he remembers the man’s hand kept reaching for his waist. And at this point, he said, “I don‘t want to know if he had anything in his hand or not.” “We owe some gratitude to the two individuals in the bar,” said Graham. “It's quite unusual to capture someone in this way.’ Troll, stiit sounded exhilarated by the experience Tuesday, “It's a one-in-a-lifetime.” “My hands were still shaking an hour later,” be said. “It was a reat adrenaline rush.” Graham said the alertness of business-people to counterfeit money is also “exactly what we're trying to encourage.” The investigation continues in North Vancouver, where the RCMP’s plain-clothes traud detail is actively pursuing a number of feads. Arca businesses with any information about counterfeit bills are asked to call the North Vancouver RCMP at 985-1311. said Anderson, who NEWS ; photo Terry Peters ° NORTH VANCOUVEF: RCMP have not yet determined if this exit hole was caused Saturday by a bullet fired near Lynn Valley Road. But the victims are certain someone fired a gun randomly at the car narrowly missing a passenger. The “exit is shown in the photograph below the driver's outside 75 {eet (23 m) of the shooter, The couple had been driving west on the road near Mountain Highway at the time of the incident. The two victims had recently moved to Lynn Valley after buying a home in the areca, They had previ- ously lived on Bewicke Avenue. “Howas like that was a North Vancouver RCMP Cpl, ~ Pat Dickson sitid the potice report injury associated with the “shots 983. 2208, Lemprigre said there was a lone car parked in the centre of the strip mall at the time of the shooting. He estimated the car was within “It was the scariest experience of my life... T think my fianee is still in shock.” said Lempricre. “'WEWS PHOTO Torry Peiorn | NORTH VANCOUVER RCMP constable Todd Fookes of the Fraud division examines counterfeit U.S. $20 ‘bills recovered over the past week on the North Shore. Most hockey tickets used properly - W. Van board SEASONS TICKETS to Vancouver Canucks hockey games for the 1991-92 and 1992-93 hockey seasons were purchased by West Vancouver School District 45 with fees paid by international students and used as incentives. for West ‘Vancouver “school system emplayees, said board chairman Jean Ferguson Monday. i By Kevin Gillies Contributing Writer In a prepared statement read. to the audience at ‘a West Vancouver District 45 School Board meeting, Ferguson said |, that, with the exception of mis- ‘ use by one principal, who no ° longer is with the district, the | tickets were used.properly. The statement was board's response to charges from Gaye Lefaivre that the. : tickets were actually bonuses for frozen administrator salaries. Lefaivre is the estranged wife Budget Beaters .........42. 35, Business .... @ Classified ............. 44 8 Crossword. .....-......49 the |; ~ ways to recognize their fine of former Sentinel secondary school principal Peter Lefaivre. The hockey; tickets cost the / school district approximately $5,200. for the first season and approximately the same for the second season... . Ferguson s has been discontinued, Seats in’ West Vancouver schools are sold to international. students and the fees are used to -supplement funding. from the provincial government. The. board has maintained.” "that the’ tickets were used as an ‘incentive plan for teachers. The - West ’ Vancouver “Teachers Association (WVTA) had maine tained that.no teachers used the = tickets. ' Ferguson said the board will “work. with our teachers: and appropriate and inexpensive efforts in our'schools. “Liaison mectings are 'sched-,” uled this month with teachers | and administrators,” she said. RB Lifestyles......... 8 News of the Weird @ North Shore Now . Fa Sports ........... Weather Thursday, periods of rain, high 7, low 3 Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 0087238 THIS WEEK’ S QUE SSTION: “Should there be limits on residential garbage pick- up in “North Vancouver? i id the practice _ “municipal-employees to seek: