Pride Week stranger assault 'may have been motivated by hate,' Vancouver police say

Vancouver police have released surveillance video of what they say was an unprovoked assault that "may have been motivated by hate."

The incident occurred shortly after midnight on July 31 outside a convenience store on Commercial Drive near 10th Avenue, police said in a statement Saturday morning, nearly a month after the assault occurred.

In the video, a man can be seen exiting the store. As soon as he does, a group of five people – three men and two woman – approaches. One of the women throws a drink at the victim, and the three men soon surround him, punching and kicking him before leaving him on the side of the road.

“We do believe that this is another disturbing incident that was unprovoked and we do believe that it was motivated by hate,” Const. Tania Visintin told reporters Saturday. “This happened during Pride Week and I understand the suspects did utter some homophobic threats to the victim during the attack.”

The victim had stopped at the convenience store to buy a drink after celebrating Pride Week events downtown, police said, adding that there was "a brief verbal confrontation" between the victim and another man waiting in line, shortly before the attack.

Visintin said police are not sure whether the verbal confrontation inside the store was related to the attack that happened outside. The victim suffered cuts and bruises in the incident.

“We believe (his injuries) were minor, in the sense they were not life threatening,” Visintin said. “But obviously there’s a lot of emotional trauma that comes with this. To be attacked for who you are, what you believe in, what you look like, I can’t imagine what he’s going through.”

Visintin said the delay in releasing the video to the public was due to “investigative steps” that needed to be taken, including informing the victim that the video would be released publicly.

“We have to make sure that they’re fully informed of what’s going on; their image, their face will be on the TV as well,” she said.

#VPDNews Vancouver Police have released video of a violent and unprovoked assault on Commercial Drive last month, and are asking the public to help identify the attackers.

Media Release: https://t.co/amQrDMmfvH pic.twitter.com/7TQI4Ex5Dz

— Vancouver Police (@VancouverPD) August 27, 2022

Police are asking the public for help identifying the perpetrators.

“The video shows a number of people passing through the area, including people in cars and a cyclist who stopped to help but did not remain on scene when police arrived,” Visintin said. “We’re also asking these people to come forward to tell us what they saw and heard, so we can fully understand what happened.”

Police described the suspects as three men who appear to be in their 20s. One was wearing a black T-shirt and black pants, as well as black shoes that had orange markings. The other two were wearing white T-shirts and dark-coloured shorts, with white shoes.

Anyone who witnessed the attack, has dash-cam video or can identify the people in the video is asked to call investigators at 604-717-9209 or to email [e-mail], police said.