A Vancouver woman is outraged after her daughter was brutally assaulted by two strangers in Kitsilano on Monday.
Mirella Gibeau said her daughter was on one of her typical late-night walks early in the morning near West 10th Avenue and Waterloo Street around 2:30 a.m. when two masked men stopped her.
“One grabbed her purse and broke the strap, and the other took off her headphones, smashed them and said, ‘Give me your phone,'” Gibeau said.
Gibeau said when her daughter, who did not want to be named, refused to hand over the phone, the violence escalated.
“He elbowed her in the face, then punched her seven times.
The woman has a fractured nose, a badly bruised eye, and an injury to her jaw.
“It’s horrible to me that there’s someone so cowardly as to punch a girl in the face over some old phone,” Gibeau said.
“What kind of lowlife does that do?” she asked.
Vancouver police said they believe the two suspects are men in their twenties.
“We have additional officers patrolling the area now to gather any information, gather any evidence they can,” Sergeant Steve Addison said.
The attack is the latest addition to a growing and disturbing list of unknown attacks in the city.
Late last year, VPD said it was seeing four stranger assaults a day.
“You should be able to walk in your neighborhood and feel safe no matter what neighborhood you live in, no matter what time of day it is,” Addison said.
Gibeau said she’s tired of watching Vancouver’s public safety deteriorate.
“We have safety issues and it’s already here in all the neighborhoods, we have to take this seriously,” she said.
Gibeau said her daughter is now home from the hospital and recovering, but the damage may go beyond physical injuries.
“I don’t know how she’s going to feel about walking again,” Gibeau said.
“I don’t feel safe, I’m scared, my daughter is scared.
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