VicPD officer in civilian clothes intervenes in hate-motivated assault on woman and her children

Police arrested a man after a hate-motivated assault on a woman and her children in Victoria.

Shortly after 12 pm on Tuesday, a VicPD officer in civilian clothes was driving their personal vehicle when they witnessed a shirtless man acting erratically in the 3000-block of Quadra Street.

The man yelled and postured aggressively toward a man and his child. The man and child moved away from the suspect for their safety and were not physically harmed.

The suspect then headed towards Quadra Elementary School. The officer followed the man and called for additional uniformed police officers to attend.

The suspect then obtained a broom handle and approached a woman walking with a stroller and her four children. He then spat at the family, narrowly missing a child, and yelled racial slurs regarding the family’s Asian ethnicity.

The non-uniformed officer approached to intervene and the man then attacked the non-uniformed officer’s vehicle, damaging it.

Uniformed officers arrived and arrested the suspect moments later. He was transported to VicPD cells where he was held in custody. He faces recommended charges of assault and mischief.

Police said the incident is being treated as a hate-motivated crime.

“British Columbia and North America have seen significant increases in hate-motivated crime towards Asian persons. Thankfully we have not seen a similar significant increase in these crimes towards Asian members of our Victoria and Esquimalt communities,” the VicPD said.

If you have information about this incident and have not spoken to officers, please call the VicPD Report Desk at (250) 995-7654 extension 1. To report what you know anonymously, please call Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.