Victim of stranger assault critical of VPD's treatment of case (PHOTOS)

Contributed photo | Courtesy of VPD

Editor’s note: This article contains photos that may be disturbing to some readers.

A man that was bear-sprayed and stabbed by strangers in Vancouver said he feels the police have downplayed the seriousness of the assault despite it leading to serious injuries.

Around 3 am on June 18, the victim, Mathew, (who’d prefer not to use his full name) was walking home after drinks on Davie Street.

When he walked out of an alleyway, he said he was bear-maced, stabbed, and hit by a group of teenagers.

“There would have been seconds of them being even aware of my presence,” he told Daily Hive. “So that’s why I’m sure it is random and not targeted in any way.”

When Mathew broke free from the group and ran, some group members chased after him.

He ran for about a block until all members running after him stopped.

The 37-year-old eventually called 911 but ended up finding his own way to the hospital.

After attempting to flag down drivers for help around 4 am, he said, fortunately, a cab driver stopped and drove him to St. Paul’s Hospital where he was later transferred to Vancouver General Hospital.

Mathew said he had a stab wound on his upper left abdomen and woke up to a number of bruises.

“My stab wounds caused them to operate on me, which caused my diaphragm to be damaged, my large colon to be damaged, and my left lung collapsing.”

Submitted

A few days later, police posted a statement about a series of unprovoked assaults that weekend, which included the attack Mathew faced.

In it, police said officers received a report that a 27-year-old man was stabbed and bear-sprayed by a group of six to eight teens around 3:30 am while walking near Drake and Seymour Street.

Police added, “The victim’s injuries are not life-threatening and the suspects have not been identified. The investigation is ongoing.”

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Mathew told Daily Hive he was furious after police described his injuries as only “not life-threatening” because he felt it “downplays the seriousness of the crime.”

“If I wasn’t attended to, I would have died,” he said.

The age in the report was also incorrect.

“I am concerned about inaccuracy because if the [purpose] was to warn [the public] about the seriousness of the crime, it should be accurate. And if it’s non-life-threatening then people might just brush it aside.”

Photo submitted

In a response to Daily Hive, the VPD said it is not backing down from how it initially reported Mathew’s injuries.

“Non-life threatening means he wasn’t going to die. That is why we used that – because he wasn’t going to die. That’s not to say his injuries weren’t serious or life-altering, because they definitely were,” Constable Tania Visintin said.

The file remains under investigation, she adds.

Mathew said he is still recovering from his physical injuries and is concerned for his community’s wellbeing.

“If these types of concerns aren’t addressed, ultimately it affects not only me but my friends, [and] my family who visits the community.”

Since the incident took place Mathew said he’s had little contact with police for updates on his case.

“They have to understand the trauma is kind of lingering until I get some kind of understanding if justice is being pursued. And for me, it just seems like it’s not as urgent,” he said.

Photo submitted.

Mathew said his faith that the police will do everything they can is fading.

“I was assuming that they’d be turning over every stone to really uncover what happened.”

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Visintin said because of the way police were required to keep records, the VPD does not have a total number of stranger assaults that occurred so far this year.

“That would require a manual analysis of hundreds of cases to determine whether they fit the criteria of a stranger of assault, which includes whether the victim and suspect knew each other, whether there was any prior interaction, whether there was provocation, and whether there was any other specific motive, such as robbery,” she explained.

“Many of these cases require significant investigation to determine whether they are, in fact, committed by strangers and whether they are in fact unprovoked.”

Despite recent arrests and convictions, we continue to hear community concerns about street violence and stranger attacks. We're concerned too.

We’ve analyzed data from 44 recent cases to better understand the root causes. Here's some of what we found: pic.twitter.com/eGTkMPnEsX

— Vancouver Police (@VancouverPD) July 18, 2022

Recently, VPD reported several incidents where victims did not know the attacker. For example, an 89-year-old was assaulted in Chinatown, a 29-year-old was stabbed while walking in Yaletown and a woman was attacked on a public bus.