Days before fatal stabbing, Abbotsford police discussed youth violence

Just days before an Abbotsford teen was stabbed to death in a local park, a city committee was told that police were working to reduce violence among teens in the city.

The increased police activity was intended to respond to an increase in conflicts in recent months. But the youth disorder occurring in Abbotsford wasn’t unexpected or new; an Abbotsford Police Department spokesperson told The Current that youth disorder follows seasonal patterns, with more conflicts as the weather warms.

No new arrests in killing

Fifteen-year-old Billy Ledoux was killed on Wednesday, May 25 in a stabbing at Larch Park, a small neighbourhood park just west of the Sumas Way bypass. Police called the attack “targeted” and quickly arrested two teenage suspects. But days later, the two teens were released, with police saying they were not involved in the killing.

No arrests have been made since.

Three days before Ledoux’s death, Staff Sgt. Kevin Small told the Abbotsford’s public safety advisory committee that the APD were focusing on policing efforts on target areas—he specified Mill Lake park and the Bourqin bus exchange—where he said youth had been “causing a disruption in the city over the past year.”

Small said the department was hoping to prevent the creation of gangs, suggesting youth disorder in the city has been largely unorganized.

“What we don’t want to happen is that these youth organize into groups and then, obviously, violence can become more disruptive in the community,” Small said.

You can view the presentation here.

Despite the stabbing and Small’s worries about springtime youth violence, data shows only a slight increase in crime in Abbotsford over the first months of 2025, APD spokesperson Sgt. Paul Walker told The Current in an email.

In general, violent crime in Abbotsford remains considerably lower than in Mission and Chilliwack, according to recent figures.

According to data presented at the public safety committee meeting, Abbotsford’s violent crime rate is about 2% higher than in 2024. The city’s violent crime rate is slightly above that of Langley, but about significantly lower than that in both Mission and Chilliwack. The number of serious assaults is about the same as last year, although sexual assaults have increased by about 30%.

You can see the data here.

Across British Columbia, violent crime among youth has climbed modestly in recent years, but as of 2023 remained significantly lower than in the decade between 2003 and 2013, according to Statistics Canada’s crime severity index. (Figures for 2024 have not yet been released.)

An annual challenge

Walker wrote that there is no evidence that youth violence this spring is linked to any specific or ongoing conflicts.

“Instead, they appear to involve small groups of youth who gather and engage in disruptive behavior,” he wrote. “These incidents range from shoplifting with violence and physical altercations to the use of weapons such as bear spray and improvised items like batons.”

Walker said that isn’t new, and is consistent with annual patterns of youth violence that see more crime as the weather improves in the spring.)

Walker said the incidents involving youth “range from shoplifting with violence and physical altercations to the use of weapons such as bear spray and improvised items like batons.”

To address youth violence in the city, Small said the department will use a gang-prevention program that he said recently helped de-escalate a small dispute that created a high-profile stir earlier this year.

In early April, a series of social media posts warned of upcoming violence at schools in Langley and Abbotsford. The previous weekend, police had responded to several “swatting” calls, in which anonymous callers report violence or the threat at violence at another person’s home. The call then triggers a large police response.

Although similar to a prank call or a bomb threat, swatting has increasingly been employed as a weapon against online or real-life foes. The calls can not only tie up resources, but can lead to a trauma for the victim. In one case in the United States, a swatting call resulted in a heavy police response that culminated in an officer shooting the victim of the call.

Last week, Small told the city committee that the spate of swatting calls was the result of a “youth that was doing these back and forth to each other.”

Although police could vaguely determine the parties involved, the calls were placed using an internet technology that made it impossible to prove their origins.

But Small said the APD used its Pathways program to mediate between the teens, and he said “those particular swatting calls” have since stopped.

Over the last five years, 90 at-risk youth have been referred to the federally funded Pathways program. Funding is set to end next March.

Walker said the department’s youth-quad officers and regular patrol cops have also been increasingly visible in busy areas. He also pointed to the work done by the department’s SWIFT youth outreach program, which tries to connect vulnerable young people with housing, resources, and support services. That work, he said, includes trying to build personal trust with at-risk youth.

The ongoing investigation

Police are still trying to determine who killed Ledoux. The case is now in the hands of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, which rarely releases detailed information on new cases. On Tuesday, Ledoux’s sister created a GoFundMe to mitigate the costs linked to her brothers’ death. Shortly afterwards, IHIT confirmed Ledoux’s name and called for more information about the killing.

“We believe there are individuals who know what happened to Billy and we are asking them to do the right thing by contacting IHIT,” Sgt. Freda Fong told reporters.

Police are seeking to talk to anyone who was near Larch Park Sunday evening, or who might have dashcam footage.