Former pro hockey player charged in attempted baby-snatching in Kelowna
Posted Apr 30, 2019 12:10 pm.
Last Updated Apr 30, 2019 2:59 pm.
KELOWNA (NEWS 1130) – A former pro B.C. hockey player has been charged after someone reportedly tried to take a baby from its mother in Kelowna Sunday afternoon.
Harold Giffen Nyren is accused in the bizarre incident.
It happened along the city’s waterfront. Mounties say a family was walking with a baby through one of the city’s parks around 2:30 p.m.
“A male allegedly grabbed onto a small child that was in its mother’s care,” said RCMP Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey.
After a struggle, the man let go of the baby and apparently then took off his clothes and jumped into the waters of Okanagan Lake.
“It certainly was a bizarre incident. We’ve never really seen anything like it here in Kelowna. As a parent myself, I couldn’t imagine what was going through the parents’ heads at the time,” O’Donaghey.
RELATED: Naked man arrested for trying to snatch baby, flees by jumping into Okanagan Lake
The child wasn’t seriously hurt.
Nyren, who is from Calgary, used to play for the Abbotsford Heat and the Kamloops Blazers. The 30-year-old is charged with assault and resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
– With files from Martin MacMahon and Lauren Boothby
