60 assaults reported in a single weekend in Vancouver, many of which were stranger attacks

A man is handcuffed after being detained by Vancouver police officers in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Police in Vancouver are investigating dozens of assaults reported in a single weekend in the city.

In a series of social media posts, the Vancouver Police Department said its officers were called to 60 assaults over Family Day weekend. About one-third of those are believed to have been so-called "stranger" assaults, meaning the attackers were not known to the victims.

"Violence remains a problem," the VPD wrote on Twitter Tuesday, summarizing some of the incidents that were called in over the weekend.

A woman threatened a manager of a downtown grocery store with pepper spray on Friday, after throwing a flower pot at him when he told her to leave, officers said.

She was located and charged, according to the department’s Twitter posts, but police did not give any identifying information about her, nor did they say what charges she faces.

Later the same day, police said a concierge at a downtown rental building was punched in the face after telling a food delivery driver to put on a mask while inside.

Hours later, a fist-fight broke out on Granville Street after an argument got heated, police said. The ordeal ended when one man was rushed to hospital after being stabbed multiple times, police said.

The stabbing is the only one of the assaults officers issued a news release about, so more information is known about the circumstances surrounding the fight. 

Officers also briefly mentioned on Twitter that a bus rider was followed in the southeast part of the city, and received facial and head injuries in an assault by two men. An unconscious man who'd been beaten and robbed was taken to hospital after he was found in an alley, and later on Saturday, a staff member of a hotel was punched in the face after asking an "unruly guest" to leave the building.

Police said someone was arrested and charged, but did not give further details on who that person is.

The circumstances of the remaining 54 assaults are unclear, as police only outlined the six assaults mentioned above.

CTV News has reached out to police for more information.

Prior to the weekend police were already dealing with a rise in assaults, including unprovoked attacks by strangers.

Earlier this month, the VPD said it analyzed every reported assault in a period of one year, and found the city sees an average of four random attacks a day.

Assuming the 60 mentioned by police on Tuesday occurred in a period of three days, that's an average of 20 assaults per day over the long weekend.

And police said previously that these types of attacks are likely underreported for a "variety of reasons." 

As for what’s causing the rise in stranger attacks, police say the answer is multi-faceted. However, Sgt. Steve Addison said housing and mental health issues in the city’s core are part of the equation.

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Travis Prasad