A gay man has been released from St Paul’s Hospital after being treated for injuries he sustained in an assault near Abbott and Pender streets at around 2:30am on Oct 8.
“I can confirm that the VPD are actively investigating an assault allegation from the area of Abbott and West Pender,” Vancouver Police Const Anne Longley states in an Oct 8 email to Xtra. “As this is an active investigation, it is too early to make any specific comments about it,” Longley continues.
“The Diversity and Hate Crimes Unit are aware of the investigation.”
Sgt Dale Weidman, who’s overseeing the case, says he doesn’t know if it’s a gaybashing. “That’s completely, at this point, murky,” Weidman told Xtra by phone. He says police have two persons of interest, but no arrests have been made.
“Two groups of people got into some kind of an incident, an altercation over I don’t know what,” he says. “Then they’re fighting back and forth and then somebody intervenes to try to break them apart, and the injury may have occurred from that,” Weidman elaborates.
“People weren’t terribly cooperative with us last night,” Weidman adds.
“We’re trying to pull video today,” he says. “We’re trying to get Mr Probe down to the police station today to interview him and take pictures of his injury,” Weidman says.
Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert says he has been in touch with the Probe family. He says the assaulted man’s father told him homophobic slurs were used during the assault.
Chandra Herbert says he’ll be following up with Probe and his family over the weekend.
Xtra‘s attempt to reach the Probe family has not yet been successful.
Why you can trust Xtra
