4+ people randomly attacked by someone they don’t know each day, Vancouver police say

We’re getting a better sense of how often stranger attacks are happening in Vancouver, and the numbers are being described as “alarming” by police.

The Vancouver Police Department says its latest numbers show that more than four people are attacked in the city every day by someone they don’t know.

According to the VPD, in many of these incidents, the victim was attacked out of nowhere, while going about their day, and the suspect is yet to be caught.

The latest figures, released by the VPD in a Twitter thread Wednesday, report there were more than 1,555 unprovoked stranger assaults involving just over 1,705 victims from Sept. 1 of last year to Aug. 31 of this year.

Police have not provided the same data from previous years, so we are not able to confirm yet if there has been a concerning uptick. Other crime stat reports do not break down assaults by stranger assaults or other.

We then reviewed assaults that were reported to the VPD from September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021, and determined there were approximately 1,555 unprovoked stranger assaults involving 1,705 victims.

1,705.

Let that number sink in.

— Vancouver Police (@VancouverPD) October 20, 2021

Police say 47 per cent of these attacks involved a weapon. The data adds 24 per cent of the victims were female, and 28 per cent of the suspects appeared to be living with mental illness.

In one attack the police detail, a woman was walking with her elderly father in East Vancouver, near Trout Lake, when an unknown girl, who appeared to be around just 12 years old, walked up and punched her in the nose. A suspect has yet to be identified.

In another instance, two men were reportedly walking downtown when a stranger followed them, and then slapped one of them so hard it broke their glasses. Again, no arrests were made and a suspect has not yet been ID’d.

Related articles: 

• Vancouver driver hurt in ‘violent and unprovoked assault’

• Man’s throat slashed in East Vancouver, police seek witnesses

• Man accused of randomly punching people in Vancouver’s Marpole area

And in a third incident, a man is said to have been running errands in the area of Quebec Street and West 10th Avenue when a stranger came up behind him and cut his throat.

“Witnesses came to the victim’s aid, who suffered significant injuries and required emergency medical care,” the tweet reads, adding a suspect was eventually arrested and charged.

Previously, police had said the man’s injuries were “no longer considered life-threatening.”

A man was running errands in the area of Quebec St and W. 10th Ave when a stranger came up behind him and cut his throat. Witnesses came to the victim’s aid, who suffered significant injuries and required emergency medical care. The suspect was arrested and charged.

— Vancouver Police (@VancouverPD) October 20, 2021

Police are asking victims of any crime to call them, adding they’re going to be working to improve public safety. However, the VPD does not offer any specifics.

The VPD has defined an unprovoked stranger as someone with no previous relationship with the victim, whose “initial interactions were brief” (between five and 15 seconds), and whose actions in an incident were “unreasonable given the circumstances.”

The new data is being released by the VPD as the city puts together its proposed budget for the upcoming year.