Face of Nation : A homicide suspect who allegedly sent photographs of a swastika armband and a Hitler Youth knife to an online friend was not a Nazi sympathizer, but he did think the memorabilia was “cool,” says his father.
The photographs also show Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, in military fatigues, holding an Airsoft replica rifle and wearing a gas mask. The man is a suspect along with Kam McLeod, 19, in two homicides in Northern British Columbia.
Alan Schmegelsky said that his son took him to an Army Surplus store eight months ago in his hometown of Port Alberni, B.C., and that Bryer was excited about the Nazi items there. “I was disgusted and dragged him out,” Schmegelsky said. “My grandparents fled the Ukraine with three small children during the Second World War.”
The teens are charged with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia botany lecturer Leonard Dyck and are suspects in the fatal shootings of Chynna Deese and Lucas Fowler, all in Northern B.C. The search for the two men is focused on the thick and boggy forests of northeastern Manitoba.
“He thought he was Russian. Germans are their enemies,” he said. But Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, wonders why someone who relates to Russia and communism — as has been reported elsewhere — would covet Nazi items.
