Vancouver police released information that at about 10:15 a.m. on October 19, someone saw a man with a gun near the Pacific Centre Mall, swinging a gun through the downtown area, and then entering the Nordstrom mall.
He hid the gun in the jacket and occasionally drew his hand around his neck to cut his throat.
Image: CTV News
Police said the suspect was white, 54 years old, about 1 meter 72 tall and weighing about 175 pounds. He has short curly black hair and a black goatee. Wear glasses, a dark grey jacket, black pants, and black shoes.
On Thursday night, October 21, the suspect was found and arrested by police. The investigation found that the pistol he was holding was a replica, but the man was also in possession of other weapons of mass destruction.
Police said the man was identified by the whistleblower and called the police hotline before being arrested. It is unclear what purpose he walked through the downtown area with a gun and made a throat slit gesture in downtown. The case has now been referred to the Prosecutor for further hearing.
Four mob members abducted Richmond residents at gunpoint
There is more than one case of concern.
On October 21, Vancouver police also reported another vicious case. Four thugs openly abducted a Richmond resident in broad daylight. The victim was snatched from the car and beaten and tied up, seriously injured.
Police then rescued the victims in Richmond and arrested and detained 4 suspects.
The kidnapping was linked by the police to a criminal organization in the Greater Vancouver region that planned and carried out a series of armed robberies and home break-ins. Police have been investigating the group since August, but have not yet revealed more details.
The four suspects in this case are currently charged with kidnapping, forcible imprisonment, assault causing bodily harm and the use of firearms.
One of the suspects, who was not named, were Ashley Smith and Michael Husain, 30, and Harman Parmar, 24.
Gastown dead man lying on the roof of the car
Uwe Boll, owner of bauhaus restaurant in Vancouver's gastown, recently wrote a letter to the City of Vancouver accusing him of a five-year horror experience of opening a restaurant in the area.
"For five years, we have been robbed, destroyed, peed, yelled and spit by homeless people and drug addicts. I've stepped over dead people to get into the car, and my wife has also touched a dead man lying directly on the roof of the car. ”
Uwe Boll said he and his wife heard an alarm one night and walked outside the restaurant to find a woman's body lying on the roof of the car.
"The police surrounded my car and said that someone had thrown a woman out of the window, dropped it on the roof of my car, and died. The police just told my wife she should drive to the car wash. It's a nightmare! ”
"We've also been robbed many times, and the gangsters broke into our cars directly." "There have been people who accidentally stepped on needles left by drug addicts while throwing garbage in alleys and had to go to the hospital."
Uwe Boll closed his restaurant in March 2020 and moved his family to Germany to work.
John Clerides, owner of Vancouver's Marquis Wine Cellar, also said that last month thieves broke the front window of his bar and stole a 6,000-knife e-bike that they delivered.
"They stole it in 30 seconds," John Clerides said, "and there's more street crime, vandalism, drug use, open defecation, and the crime rate is worse than anything I've ever seen." ”
Business owners across downtown Vancouver have been dealing with smashed windows in recent months, spending hundreds of thousands of Canadian dollars on repairs. According to the West End Community Police, hoax-related crimes increased by 50 percent between April and September this year alone.
Frequent random injuries: 1,705 people were victimized in 1,555 attacks
Vancouver's "random injury cases" have also increased. Vancouver Police said a total of about 1,555 stranger attacks involving 1,705 victims were reported from September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021. An average of 4 cases per day. And 47 per cent of these attacks involved weapons.
Image: Twitter
Dr Rylan Simpson, a professor of criminology at SFU, said all violent crimes deserve attention and that data-driven policies should be adopted. "There are currently no data for other years to compare, and we must be careful not to make generalizations or conclusions about changes in the incidence of such events."
A Vancouver police spokesman wrote in an email: "We're stating differently than we've ever been in any other year. So unfortunately, we can't compare the situation earlier. But in my opinion, even if there is no comparison, the average of 4 cases per day is high. ”
Photo credit: CityNews
Dr. Simpson cautions, "Crime tends to congregate in some similar places. "The police should provide more context and details to develop prevention and response measures."
Some experts say that crime is a complex social problem that cannot be solved by the police alone. "We should pool our energy and money to make sure we can solve the underlying problems."
In any case, the recent frequent attacks are really worrying, especially random attacks against strangers, which make everyone a possible target. In addition to hoping that the police will find a solution faster, each of us should also pay special attention when going out, especially to avoid staying alone in remote and dark areas, and vulnerable groups such as women and the elderly are best accompanied.
Hope everyone is safe.