Almost a week has been set aside in BC Supreme Court for the trial of a local young man charged with  his participation in a bomb incident last summer in Oliver.

Eric Daoust, 23, was charged with 81(1)(c) placing / throwing explosive to damage property

His trial date at Penticton has been set to start Monday August 25th

Date of Offence 11-Aug-2013

RCMP arrested 19 year Stephan Daoust and his brother Eric without incident after a two month long investigation.

The Oliver RCMP investigated the bombing incident after it went unreported for a day and as it was believed to have been a lightning strike. Police became involved the following day when a resident came to the local RCMP office with a piece of metal shrapnel believed to be connected with damage to a homeowners’ garage and a vehicle parked nearby.

RCMP bomb squad members attended and examined the scene and determined that an improvised (homemade) explosive device had been placed and detonated under a vehicle parked in the residential alleyway between Okanagan Street and Earle Crescent in Oliver. No one was injured in the blast however close examination of the vehicle and a nearby homeowner’s garage uncovered damage by the blast and flying shrapnel. The metal fragment (18 cm x 5 cm x .5 cm) had been found in the complainant’s garage after it was projected at a sufficient velocity to go through the outside wall, splinter through a 2 x 4 and end up inside the garage.

Stephan Daoust was charged with this offence as well and a second charge in connection with another incident about a month later. He pled guilty and is serving his sentence on weekends.