Update: April 27, 2021 | April 7, 2021
Vancouver Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying a suspect who defaced several large windows at the Chinese Cultural Centre with hateful graffiti in Vancouver’s Chinatown last month.
“It’s disheartening to report that these types of crimes are ongoing during the pandemic,” says Constable Tania Visintin, VPD. “Our department takes crimes with such hate attached extremely seriously. We will not tolerate this in our city.”
Police believe the suspect walked into the courtyard of the Chinese Cultural Centre in the afternoon of April 2, and wrote disturbing, racist remarks towards the Asian community on four large glass windows.
The suspect is described as white, with a thin build. At the time of the incident, he was wearing a black jacket, black pants and grey running shoes. He was also wearing a black baseball cap with writing on the front and had a black and white bandana covering his nose and mouth.
In recent weeks, Vancouver Police have seen an increase in reports of anti-Asian hate-motivated incidents and criminal acts. Fifteen hate crimes were reported to police in April. Eleven of those reports had an anti-Asian element. So far in 2020, there have been a total of 20 anti-Asian hate crimes reported to police. In comparison, there were 12 in all of 2019.
Anyone with information is asked to call the VPD investigators at 604-717-2773 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.
