Video clip from YouTube used to track down suspected murderer

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Following the stabbing of Ryan Milner at a Canadian nightclub parking lot, Hamilton police posted a 72-second video clip of a surveillance cam on YouTube, a popular video sharing website, with hopes that witnesses would come forward. While no additional witnesses turned up, about two weeks later, 24-year-old George Gallo turned himself in.

Police had thought that the extra attention brought to the case is what made Mr Gallo surrender; indeed, the video had been viewed 34,000 times. Additionally, the video had been seen from as far away as Singapore. Hamilton Police believes this is the first time YouTube has been used in an investigation, and they are considering using YouTube for future investigations.

Detective Sergeant Jorge Lasso claims that he got the idea when he noted that the same people who attended the concert are the same people who are his children's ages. "My own children are in that age category, and they spend all their time on the Internet; they do not watch mainstream media," he stated.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

"Ontario police laud YouTube as effective crime-fighting tool" — Calgary Sun, December 22, 2006
Beth Duff-Brown - Associated Press. "Canadian Police Say YouTube Aided Arrest" — The Washington Post, December 21, 2006
Canadian Press. "YouTube catalyst in finding murder suspect" — The Globe and Mail, December 21, 2006
"Jessie James CCTV clip". YouTube, Posted on December 21, 2006 by jessiejamesappeal

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License