The man in this video is a high-risk and violent offender with a history of armed robberies, assaulting police, and drug trafficking. He is involved in the Downtown Eastside’s illicit drug trade and, based on his violent history, is considered armed and dangerous.

https://twitter.com/VANDUpeople/status/1595937765526732800

His first adult conviction for robbery came 10 years ago, when he was 19 years old in Toronto. Since that time, he’s been convicted of 17 criminal offences. His most recent conviction was in May, when he was sentenced to jail for assault causing bodily harm.

This morning, several people, including staff and a social worker, called 9-1-1 from BC Women’s Hospital. They reported that a woman was armed with a knife, was screaming and threatening staff, and was trying to break in to a locked nursery. The woman was in close proximity to staff, babies, and at least one other pregnant woman. The staff asked VPD officers to respond “ASAP,” reporting that she was uncontrollable and violent, and had chased a doctor, who ran to a place of safety.

Over the last few months, we've noticed what appears to be an uptick in unprovoked stranger attacks, so we asked our strategic researchers to take a deep dive into the numbers.

What they found is concerning: over four people a day are the target of a random, unprovoked assault. How we got there:

First, we defined who an “unprovoked stranger” was:

- No previous relationship with the victim
- Initial interactions were brief, i.e. 0-15 seconds
- The incident was unreasonable given the circumstances