A former gang member from Vancouver who pledged to a judge he would turn his life around after losing both his legs in a brutal stabbing now faces multiple charges related to a kidnapping in Penticton.
Two weeks after Scott Andrew McArthur, 26, pleaded guilty and was given a conditional sentence for the breaking and entering of a Vancouver business in 2014, he has been arrested and charged with kidnapping using a weapon, using a firearm to commit extortion, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, possessing a firearm knowing it is unauthorized and pointing a firearm.
In the early morning hours on Oct. 18 Penticton RCMP received a report that a man called his grandmother saying that he and his dog were being kidnapped and threatened to be shot if he doesn’t give the assailant money.
Police located a blue SUV outside an apartment building at Skaha Place and inside were the victim and three males. The three males were arrested and police seized a handgun and a rifle. RCMP said it was a targeted and drug-related incident.
The fact that McArthur had both his legs amputated in surgery, after refusing a gang order to take drugs into a prison, led Judge Greg Koturbash to note that McArthur would have a challenging time in custody and “at this stage in his life, no longer poses a threat to the community” during his sentencing in September.
Koturbash handed down a nine-month conditional sentence on Sept. 30 with a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew for the breaking and entering of a Vancouver business in February 2014, where McArthur smashed a glass door and stole an iMac computer, a keyboard and cables. DNA evidence quickly matched McArthur due to the blood he left on the scene.
McArthur told the court at his September sentencing that he and his mother, who he resides with in Penticton, have faced drug abuse issues.
“We’ve been going through hell, every day is a challenge. I’m no longer a threat to society,” McArthur told the judge in September. “I really want to do better with my life after what has happened.”
McArthur’s lawyer Robert Maxwell said his client is a former member of the Greeks gang and was the target of a stabbing on Dec. 26, 2014. He said that McArthur was attacked by three assailants and died on the operating table twice, and with severed arteries the doctors were forced to amputate his legs.
McArthur made an emotional plea to the court on Sept. 30 that agencies have reached out to him to speak to students at schools about the dangers of gang life.
“I look forward to it actually,” McArthur told the judge in September.
At that court appearance the judge heard that McArthur had a “significant” criminal record.
McArthur appeared in court on Oct. 19 where a date for his arraignment was set for Oct. 28.