The Vancouver Police have issued an unusual public safety warning about former BC Lions player Joshua Boden.
Boden was charged with sexual assault September 10 after allegedly groping a woman near Commercial Drive on Labour Day. Police added a charge of resisting arrest and one count of obstruction of a police officer after Boden allegedly got into a "very violent" struggle with officers as they tried to take him into custody.
The 23-year-old is also facing charges stemming from another alleged sexual assault on Alberni Street August 29. That charge was added on September 15, while Boden was still in police custody.
Const. Lindsey Houghton says the department has taken the extraordinary measure of issuing a public warning because they believe he poses a safety risk to the community.
"The way he selected and targeted the victims the investigators felt the need to warn the public," he told ctvbc.ca.
Boden has not been convicted of the accused assaults and is due to appear in court October 15 to answer to the charges. He was released from custody after a bail hearing Friday. Vancouver Police say he resides in Surrey.
The Vancouver Police are still appealing for the victim of another sexual assault to come forward. The woman was assaulted while waiting at a bus stop on Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver September 3.
The suspect in that case is described as a black man around 26-years-old, five feet, 11 inches tall with a muscular build.
After Boden's arrest, his former coach, the BC Lions' Wally Buono, told CTV News he was saddened by the news.
"At the end of the day, you gotta do things to help people, but you know they have to help themselves," Buono said. "Unfortunately, it didn't work out."
Boden was a wide receiver for the Lions during the 2006-07 CFL seasons, but was cut from the team after being charged with domestic assault, mischief and theft in April 2008.
The charges were dropped four months later, when his ex-girlfriend, Kimberly Hallgarth, said she couldn't remember key details of the assault.
Hallgarth, a 33-year-old tanning salon owner and single mother, was found dead in her rented Burnaby home in March 2009. Boden is not a suspect in the case.
Homicide investigators said Hallgarth's murder was not a random act. No arrests have been made in her death.
Boden was given a second chance in the CFL with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, signing with the club in September 2008. He was cut after only one game, ironically against the BC Lions, when the player he was replacing recovered from his injury.
