Unidentified man punches young Asian woman in the face in Vancouver

#VPDNews: Vancouver Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a suspect who assaulted a young woman in downtown Vancouver the afternoon of April 12. https://t.co/tcdtcQCJsU pic.twitter.com/BECfHXEHpl

— Vancouver Police (@VancouverPD) May 5, 2020

A young Asian woman was suddenly punched in the face by an unidentified man while she was just standing at a bus stop in downtown Vancouver, according to Vancouver Police.

In a media briefing on Tuesday, May 5, Sergeant Aaron Roed, media relations officer for the Vancouver Police Department, said the assault happened last April 12 near Granvill and West Pender Streets.

In the footage released by the authorities, the suspect was seen walking towards the direction of the 22-year-old woman when he suddenly punched her in the face, making the victim fall to the ground. The suspect then immediately fled on a transit bus, the police said.

The attacker was described as a white man in his mid-20s with a medium build. He was seen wearing a dark-colored t-shirt with an image of a deer emblem in the front and a gray long-sleeved shirt underneath his t-shirt. He was also wearing a beanie with grey and yellow stripes.

“The assault appears to be unprovoked and there was no communication between the victim and the attacker,” Roed said.

Asked about the condition of the victim, the officer said that she is now “a lot better,” physically.

“[About] how she has been doing emotionally, she’s going to have to recover and we are there for her. We have provided victim services,” Roed said.

The motive behind the assault is yet to be identified. Although this happened amid the rising reports of incidents of discrimination and unfair treatment against people with Asian heritage as they are being wrongfully blamed for the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Roed said they refuse to speculate on the suspect’s motive.

“This is why we want to identify the attacker, so we can rule anything out and find out if this is a hate crime,” he said.

“This is a disgusting act of an assault on an innocent person. We don’t want to see this type of crime happen to anybody in our community around our city or anywhere in Metro Vancouver. We’re not going to tolerate this and if this is a hate crime, we will be investigating it as that,” he added.

Roed said the VPD’s diversity and hate crime department is already working with major-crime detectives on the assault.

Meanwhile, the authorities are appealing to anyone who has information regarding the incident to come forward.