Vancouver police are hunting for the suspect in a “despicable” racist attack on a 92-year-old Asian man with dementia, who was thrown to the ground as his attacker shouted slurs about Covid-19.
Police said on Wednesday that the attack was part of a wave of anti-Asian hate crimes in this western Canadian city linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
The victim had just been reported missing by his family when he wandered into a convenience store and encountered his attacker.
“Everything about this assault and the behaviour of the suspect is despicable, ” said Constable Tania Visintin, a media relations officer. “As a police department, we do not tolerate incidents motivated by bias, prejudice, or hate. It’s even more disturbing considering the victim’s age.”
The attack, captured on video that was released with a plea to the public to identify the suspect, occurred on March 13 on the city’s Eastside, which has long been associated with Vancouver’s working-class Chinese community.
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The silent CCTV footage shows the small East Asian man being forcefully thrown out of a convenience store near Nanaimo Street and East 1st Avenue by his much larger attacker, who is balding with a goatee beard, heavy gold chains around his wrist and neck.
The victim tries to brace himself against the door frame but is pushed through, falls to the ground and hits the back of his head on the pavement, losing a shoe as he goes sprawling. He lies prone for a few moments before the attacker returns to drag him into a sitting position.
However, the old man was unhurt, said Visintin, who said the man suffered from “severe dementia” and was lost. He had been reported missing by his family less than an hour before the attack.
“I can only imagine what they went through, ” said Visintin.
The victim had wandered into the store, whose staff were trying to help him, “when the suspect began yelling racist remarks at the victim that included comments about Covid-19”, said Visintin. Police were called to the scene, but the attacker had left.
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Visintin, who said she did not know if the man in the video was ethnically Chinese, said police had been interviewing witnesses and conducting other investigations during the almost seven-week delay between the attack and the plea for assistance on Wednesday.
Vancouver police said there had been an increase in reports of anti-Asian hate-crimes. Eleven hate crimes were reported to police in March, five of which had “an anti-Asian element”.
There have been nine anti-Asian hate crimes reported to Vancouver police this year, compared to 12 in all of 2019.
“We know that hate crimes and hate-motivated incidents are generally under-reported. We believe the increase in March is indicative of a larger issue, ” said Visintin. “We are making a plea to victims or people who witness hate crimes to please come forward and report the incidents to police so they can be investigated.”
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Incidents reported to the Vancouver police this year have included verbal attacks against Chinese Canadians involving racist language, and printed fliers directed at the “white man” promoting white nationalism.
The suspect in the East Vancouver attack is described as a white man in his 50s, about 1.8 metres tall with a heavy build. He was wearing a grey unbuttoned shirt over a black T-shirt with a white skull design, black plants and black running shoes.
Anyone with information is asked to call Vancouver police at 604-717-2763 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.
More from South China Morning Post:
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