PETERBOROUGH – Former junior hockey star Daniel Ryder has been charged with
armed robbery, and residents in his hometown of Bonavista, N.L., are
wondering what happened to the talented hockey player.
“Everyone’s shocked and amazed,” said Basil Durdle, owner of the Bonavista
convenience store that was robbed Tuesday night.
The robber didn’t ask for cash and only took cigarettes, he said.
Ryder, 22, was charged Wednesday with robbery, using a disguise with intent
to commit an indictable offence, using a firearm in the commission of an
offence and theft.
Ryder played with the Ontario Hockey League's Peterborough Petes from 2003
to 2007. He was the team’s leading scorer for three years and received the
Wayne Gretzky “99” Award during the 2006 OHL playoffs.
The Calgary Flames drafted him in 2005.
“We’re asking ourselves, what happened to him?” Durdle said.
Police said a man walked into Durdle’s Red Circle Convenience Store at about
9:48 p.m. Tuesday.
A black scarf partially covered his face, police said, and he was wearing
several layers of clothing, including a grey hooded sweater and a blue
Ultramar jacket.
Police said he was carrying a white shopping bag with BENTLY written across
the front of it and told the lone female clerk he had a gun.
Police asked the public to help identify the perpetrator. Ryder turned
himself in Wednesday without incident, police said.
Ryder appeared in a Clarenville, Newfoundland court Thursday morning and was
held for a further seven days to undergo a psychiatric assessment. He
appears in court again Jan. 14.
RCMP media officer Sgt. Wayne Newell said police are still trying to
determine if the robber actually had a gun.
Newell said he couldn’t elaborate on Ryder’s previous history with the
police, but the 22-year-old was known to them.
“I can only give you the standard line, and that he’s known to the RCMP in
Bonavista,” Newell said. “Our members are familiar with him.”
Durdle said Ryder was in the store about an hour before the robbery, filling
out a Pro-Line lottery ticket.
“He comes into the store often. He’s a customer,” Durdle said.
Durdle asked Ryder if he was planning on watching a hockey game that night but he’s not sure if Ryder replied or not.
He’s normally very quiet,
Durdle said, and keeps to himself a lot of the time.
“He’s quiet anyway,” Durdle said. “Daniel is very, very reclusive.”
He said the clerk was mopping the floor on the other side of the store
that night when she heard a noise near the front of the store.
“She walked around and saw someone on the other side of the counter,” Durdle
said.
The man had his back to her and was standing near the cigarette display,
Durdle said, and the girl first thought one of her friends was playing a
joke on her.
Then he turned and she saw that his face was covered, he said.
“He said, ‘I got a gun, I got a gun,’” Durdle said, adding that the clerk
didn’t see a gun.
The robber didn’t ask for any cash, he said, or tell her to open the till.
“He didn’t ask for anything.”
He took 40 to 50 packages of cigarettes, he said, and dropped them into a
bag.
“Then he went on.”
Durdle said armed robberies aren’t common in Bonavista, so the crime came as
a shock to residents.
People were further shocked when they found out Ryder was charged with the
incident, he said.
He counts Ryder as a friend, he said, and it’s upsetting to think that a
customer and friend could do this.
He doesn’t know what could have motivated the crime, he said, though
something must have happened to the hockey player who showed so much talent.
Ryder is the younger brother of NHL player Michael Ryder, who plays for the
Boston Bruins.
