A youth caught on video appearing to try to light a police car on fire in Vancouver on Wednesday night has been identified as an elite athlete who was headed to the University of Calgary on scholarship.
Nathan Kotylak, 17, was identified as one of the hundreds of people who tore a path of destruction through Vancouver's downtown streets after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins.
Water Polo Canada later announced it has suspended a high-level polo player over allegations he was involved in the riot.
...
The Grade 12 student from the Vancouver suburb of Maple Ridge and attends a private school and plays water polo on Canada's junior national team.
Kotylak had received a partial scholarship to attend the University of Calgary to study kinesiology, and hoped one day to compete in the Olympics, according to his father.
After the picture of Kotylak vandalizing a police car became one of the most viewed images in the riot's aftermath, the young athlete was repeatedly outed on Facebook and other social networking sites by people who recognized him.
The teen's father, a surgeon in B.C., told CBC News on Friday that the Grade 12 student will be "doing the right thing" by turning himself in.
He added he wishes his older son had been there that night to look out for his 17-year-old and described the photo as "misleading."
