An 11-year-old boy was beaten by a group of boys at the new Parkland Hall skatepark. (Mike Sayese/Facebook)

By Glenn Hicks

public safety

Boy beaten up at Parkland Hall skatepark

Jun 18, 2019 | 4:00 PM

The beating up of an 11-year-old boy at the new skatepark at Parkland Hall Sunday night has prompted a relative to call for more security.

Meanwhile, as the city and Prince Albert police investigate, they’re stressing it appears to be an isolated incident with user experiences having been positive at the new amenity.

Sometime before 10 p.m. Sunday the boy’s aunt, Jessica Litwin – who lives near the park – heard a commotion up the street. She went to take a look and found her nephew on the ground on the corner of 15^th Street W. and Ninth Avenue W., being attended by a police officer. A bystander had flagged down the officer who was driving around on patrol.

“My heart started beating because I recognized him,” Litwin told paNOW. “He was lying on the ground crying. A bunch of kids had jumped him and slashed his bike tires.”

Parkland Ambulance also attended but it was determined -likely by an attending adult – that the boy did not need to be taken to hospital. Litwin said her nephew was shaken-up and had a sore stomach and she believes the group of boys who assaulted him were of similar age. She wants more to be done regarding security.

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“I’d prefer the skatepark lights to be turned off at quiet time, at 11 p.m., and for them to have security there during the day, because things are just crazy [around here],” she said.

Sergeant Travis Willie with the P.A Police Service said they had little information to work with but wanted to learn more.

“If we could identify these kids, and depending on how old they are they could be looking at charges,” he said. “At the very least we’d like to identify them and get to the bottom of this.”

Police and city regard the incident as isolated

Willie recommended children of this age hang out with a buddy and let their parents or guardian know where they are and set a return home time. But he added this was an unusual incident.

“There’s nothing to indicate from a police standpoint that there’s a problem [at the skatepark] and we need to look any further,” he said.

The city of P.A. echoed that sentiment and said the user experiences at the newly created venue had been positive since it opened.

PAGC set to staff skatepark

As for the lighting and security, the city said the lights are on from dusk until dawn to make it a visible area. In a statement to paNOW the city said it would continue to monitor the area through a mobile security company until there was staff regularly on site. Police also patrol the area to help keep things safe, the city added.

The Prince Albert Grand Council recently acquired the Parkland Hall site in a land swap deal with the city. They will be staffing the location in the near future as the new owners, according to the city. In addition the playground program staff will be on site for the months of July and August.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow