Several charges have been approved against a 61-year-old man who allegedly entered a pedestrian and then stabbed him at a gas station in East Vancouver this week.
Witnesses told CTV News that they saw a minibus heading at a high-speed pedestrian in front of Hastings and Skeena’s Esso Street on Wednesday morning, sending the victim into the air.
They said that the driver then got out of the vehicle and attacked the victim with a knife and a weapon with a larger blade. There are serious injuries, but no danger to life.
“I really don’t understand the reason for the stabbing,” said witness David Leonardo, adding that the attacker appeared to be in difficulty. “I looked him in the eye and he just wasn’t there.”
Authorities said the suspect and the victim did not know each other, describing the alarming incident as “seemingly accidental and unprovoked”.
The attacker chased other people around the gas station and hit another man, according to police.
A video obtained exclusively from CTV News shows passers-by trying to defend themselves during the brawl, including a man who picked up part of a blue trash can to prevent a possible attack.
Several police officers with weapons were then seen detaining the suspect.
Police said Thursday that Leslie Dale Chudek, without a fixed address, has been charged with aggravated assault, assault, threatening and driving in a manner dangerous to society.
Speaking in parliament on Thursday, British Columbia Secretary of Public Security Mike Farnworth was asked about the alarming attack and other cases of apparently accidental violent crime and assured the public that police were “doing everything possible to ensure Vancouver is a safe city”. “
“Obviously you are worried about the victims,” Farnworth said of Wednesday’s incident. “In that case, they will recover, but obviously the trauma of that would be absolutely appalling and appalling.”
City Count. Sarah Kirby-Jung said she was disturbed by the video of the riot.
“It was horrible. “I literally stopped what I was doing to watch the video in disbelief, it was hard to imagine that this is something that is happening in our city,” said Kirby-Jung.
As part of the minority minority party on the council, she believes the mayor and other councilors have not taken the issue of strangers’ attacks seriously enough.
“I think we really need to acknowledge that this problem is serious and that people are asking us to step up and try to solve … the root cause of some of these problems,” said Kirby-Jung, who would like to see heavier sentences for repeat offenders.
Former Vancouver Police Narcotics Commander Kash Heed agrees.
“We tried rehabilitation, we tried drug programs, we tried all this and there is no difference. And these are the people we have to throw in jail and, using the metaphor, we have to throw away the key, “Heed said.
The suspect in the riot at the gas station does not fit this mold. Chudek has no criminal record in British Columbia and a police spokesman in Vancouver Const. Tanya Visintin told CTV News that the accused had “very little police interaction over the years”.
Head calls this an anomaly and believes that the fight against chronic offenders is the key to reducing the attacks of strangers in Vancouver.
“We have to lock them up, because at least if they’re in jail, we’re stopping them,” Heed said. “They will not go out and commit crimes.”
Chudek was detained until his next court appearance.
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