13-year-old girl attacked by mob of teens in British Columbia—5 arrested, released on 'strict conditions'

A group of teens attacked a 13-year-old girl in Kelowna, British Columbia on Sept. 27, allegedly beating her until she was unconscious. The group reportedly lured her to a beach at night and swarmed her. The girl’s father says his daughter has been traumatized by the incident and is afraid to leave the house unaccompanied. Five of the teens were arrested but were released on "strict conditions.”

The 13-year-old girl was expecting to meet her friend at Boyce-Gyro Beach Park in the medium-sized resort city in BC’s interior, per the New York Post. When she arrived at 8:30 pm, it was apparent that something was wrong as there were about 30 teens present, and some began recording the event.

After the incident, there were five minors that were arrested for their actions who were identified as part of the "aggressors" in the attack. They were released after the arrest under "strict conditions," Sgt. Laura Pollock of the RCMP said on Wednesday. Personal information on the suspects is limited as they are minors.

After the 13-year-old was knocked to the ground, a bunch of the teens jumped on top of her and started pummeling the girl in the head and punching other parts of her body until they knocked her out, according to the outlet. 

Although the girl had her smartphone with her and she thought of calling her mom for help, she wasn’t able to call again with more information because the gang took it, according to her father, identified only as Donovan. “I watched two minutes of my daughter getting near beat to death, like 20 or 30 kids who just decided that it was better for them to record it and laugh at her,” Donovan said.

The father has no idea why the gang swarmed his daughter, saying she had just begun her first year of high school and didn’t even know who most of her attackers even were. He says the kids were probably acting out what they view online. “This is, this is all probably based on what I can think of as social media,” he said.

“I don’t know what my daughter did to deserve this,” Donovan added. “I don’t know what anybody could do to deserve this. It’s terrible to watch. I hope people do watch it so they can believe it.”

She suffered a concussion and bruised ribs, but her father believes the psychological pain will take longer to heal than the physical injuries. An ambulance was eventually called to pick up the 13-year-old and take her to a hospital. "Physically, she’s got a lot of healing to do,” Donovan said. “Mentally, she started therapy, and I don’t know how long that’s ever going to take for her to trust or want to be outside again.”