Unhoused person assaulted while sleeping in Vancouver
Posted July 15, 2024 8:34 pm.
Last Updated July 16, 2024 2:35 pm.
An unhoused person is recovering from injuries after they say they were attacked while asleep outside a coffee shop over the weekend.
Leo Perry, who has been a resident in the Fairview neighbourhood for eight years, tells CityNews that he was taken to hospital for his injuries.
“They (the police) brought me to the hospital when they realized how badly injured I was, and I cannot defend myself,” he said.
Perry tells CityNews he was sleeping outside a coffee shop at West Broadway and Granville on Sunday, July 14 when someone attacked him around 6 p.m.
He was not able to see who did it, and says when police arrived, they thought he was the suspect before taking him to the hospital.
“(My) thumb might be fractured. My teeth are cracked and you can see what’s on my face. I got an injury right here and here. Somebody did a good number on me. And this was injured [pointing to leg]. I was completely fine yesterday,” he said.
In the last eight years of living in the neighbourhood, Perry says he has never experienced this kind of violence.
Perry’s leg is in a cast, pants are covered with dry blood, and his right hand is swollen. He also has an injury below his lip and above his left eye. His left eye is also visibly bruised.
Sarah Chew, a spokesperson with the Union Gospel Mission, says they have seen several incidents in the past few years against unhoused people.
She says these attacks are disturbing but not surprising.
“There was a man in 2021 who was run over and pepper sprayed, just because he was experiencing homelessness. There was a woman a few years ago, who was doused with flammable liquid and set on fire while she was sleeping outside,” she told CityNews.
Chew says violence of any form has no place in the community.
“We condemn the use of any assault, any violence on our communities who are already facing so much turmoil and stress every day. Someone’s level of housing doesn’t equate to how much respect or dignity they reserve,” she said.
Despite his injuries, Perry is still in good spirits. He says he has friends in the neighbourhood who continue to look out for him.
“I’ve got plenty of respect out here and nobody is going to let anything happen to me,” he said. “I don’t wish anything wrong against the person that would ever dare to do this to me.”
Police say arrest was for public indecency
A day after CityNews asked the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) about the incident, Const. Tania Visintin, VPD media liaison officer, said in a statement that officers responded to calls of a man chasing and yelling at coffee shop patrons and other people on the street around 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Blenz Coffee on Granville Street and Broadway.
She says officers found an “extremely intoxicated” man exposing himself to people who refused requests to cover up.
Visintin says officers brought the man to the ground when he resisted arrest, and he suffered a “a small cut to his forehead.” They brought him to the hospital, and he was released with a court date and conditions.
There was no mention of any other injuries in the statement.
Visintin would not confirm exactly who was arrested by police.
-With files from Catherine Garrett.
