Police Nab Murder Suspect via YouTube Video

Canadian police posted surveillance video to YouTube in hopes of identifying a murder suspect; 30,000 views later, the suspect turned himself in.

Police in the Canadian city of Hamilton, in the southern portion of Ontario, did something unique to try to identify a murder suspect: the uploaded a one-minute, 12 second surveillance video clip to the popular video sharing site YouTube and asked the user community for help in identifying the suspect. So far as anyone knows, this is the first time a law enforcement agency has ysed a video sharing Web site as a tool in an active investigation.

On November 17, 2006, 22 year-old Ryan Milner and a friend got into an altercation with two othe men in a parking lot outside a club. Both Milner and his friend were stabbed; Milner died from his wounds, while his friend is still recovering. Police obtained a high-quality surveillance tape from the nearby club, and sent a clip to local media for broadcast in hopes of identifying a suspect. Since the concert Milner had attended had a younger audience, police also posted the clip to YouTube.

The result? On December 19, 24 year-old George Gallo turned himself in to police, who charged him with second-degree murder and attempted murder.

“There’s no doubt that the posting we made on YouTube had an effect on the investigation of this homicide,” said Det. Sgt. Jorge Lasso. “With the media attention, the number of viewings on YouTube was very significant.”

The video was streamed more than 30,000 times before police removed it from the YouTube site.