Repeat offender charged in Vancouver machete attack has lengthy criminal history

A 37-year-old man arrested and charged after two people were “slashed with a machete” in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside appears to be a repeat offender with a laundry list of prior convictions.

The unprovoked attack took place near Main and Hastings streets by the Empress Hotel as two people were loading luggage into a waiting taxi mid-June, according to police.

A Vancouver Police Department officer was flagged to the incident when they discovered both victims with neck and head wounds. Police said the two suffered significant injuries that required hospitalization but were expected to recover.

The suspect immediately fled the scene.

Both victims told the police they did not know the attacker and police investigators initially only had a limited description.

Detectives later found evidence that included a security video of a man fleeing the area after the attack.

Kenneth Stephen Solowan was arrested after the video was released to the public.

Solowan was found near Chinatown and is now charged with two counts of aggravated assault.

This incident is one of several reports of stranger attacks in recent months in Metro Vancouver, including a number of unprovoked assaults involving bear spray, a woman allegedly punched in the head and face several times on the bus, and even a stabbing at a grocery store.

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A lengthy criminal record

A search of BC’s Online Court records shows a man named Kenneth Stephen Solowan has another past weapons charge, as well as several other convictions including stolen property.

He has been sent to jail half a dozen times in the last 15 years. In at least two convictions, he was sentenced to serve single day in prison.

His sentencing was also reduced in connection to a 2006 stolen vehicle conviction, where he was given 15 months but the Court of Appeal later reduced that to three.

Solowan is currently in custody following his arrest Wednesday and will appear in court on August 17.