Final Stanley Cup rioter arrested

The No. 1 suspect in last year’s Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver was arrested after eluding police for 15 months.

Suspect IRIT-00001, as he was known to investigators, has now been identified as 24-year-old Jonathan Stephen Mahoney, according to the Canadian Press. He is the last of 15 people arrested for the assault of Robert MacKay, a Good Samaritan who was swarmed, beaten and pepper sprayed on June 15, 2011 as he tried to stop rioters from smashing in windows of the Bay department store and stealing merchandise from inside.

Members of Vancouver's Integrated Riot Investigative Team had been tracking Mahoney, who they had dubbed "target No. 1," from Vancouver, to Newfoundland and finally to Saskatchewan, where he was arrested, reported the Vancouver Sun. But it was members of the public outside BC who identified Mahoney through video footage on the Vancouver police website and led authorities to his location in Lanigan, Sask.

"It was very difficult because he wasn't a resident of the Lower Mainland or the province," Insp. Laurence Rankin said, referring to the province of British Columbia, where the riots took place. 

More from GlobalPost: Stanley Cup rioter arrested, also wanted by police for another hockey-related incident

The Sun also reported that investigators had been in touch with Mahoney months before his arrest, but he refused to meet with them.

"He knew what was happening," Rankin said. "And from what I understand, speaking with the investigators yesterday, he almost anticipated that this was going to happen. It was inevitable."

Mahoney was charged with participating in a riot, assault, assault with a weapon and mischief, according to UPI. The police force said 872 charges have been filed against 275 people allegedly involved in the June 15, 2011 riots, which caused $3.7 million in damage.