Woman charged after assaulting 84-year-old with walker near Metrotown
A Vancouver woman has been arrested and charged for the assault of an 84-year-old woman that occurred last spring.
According to the Burnaby RCMP, the incident occurred on April 3, 2020, on Central Boulevard near SkyTrain’s Metrotown Station, with surveillance video footage capturing the entirety of the incident.
The video shows the suspect tripping the victim, then quickly walking away. Fortunately, the 84-year-old didn’t sustain serious injuries, although she was shaken.
Metrotown senior assault, April 3, 2020. (Burnaby RCMP)
At the time, it was unclear whether the victim was a target based on her ethnicity, but police acknowledged that there had been a spike in reported incidents that target the local Asian community.
After what police call a “lengthy investigation,” 32-year-old Hayun Song was arrested and charged for Assault Causing Bodily Harm.
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“Our High-Risk Offender Unit has reviewed all the evidence, received tips from the public, and completed an extensive investigation,” says Corporal Brett Cunningham of the Burnaby RCMP in a statement.
Earlier this month, numbers from the Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) end-of-year report showed an exponential spike in anti-Asian hate crime.
Reports of anti-Asian hate crime in Vancouver skyrocketed in 2020, increasing 717% compared to 2019.
The spike in anti-Asian hate crime appears to be in lockstep with the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus that first became widespread in China apparently fuelled racist harassment and assaults in Metro Vancouver and around the world.
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