Police tracked down and arrested a 40 year old man after a chain of events that included robberies and sexual offenses.
Shortly after 9:30 last night, the residents of a home on West King Edward near Main Street called 9-1-1 after they observed a man in their backyard. He appeared to be peering into the house, but was scared away by the family dog. He was seen by witnesses leaving the area in a dark-coloured car.
Police arrived, but were unable to locate a suspect. After speaking with witnesses and making a number of queries on several police databases using the information provided by witnesses, the patrol officers managed to identify a potential person-of-interest.
While the officers were searched for this person-of-interest, two other disturbing incidents transpired and were reported to police.
The first occurred at about 10:15 p.m. when a man approached a 19 year old woman walking on Victoria near S.E. Marine Drive. He allegedly pulled out a handgun and tried to rob the young woman. He then exposed himself to her and told her to do the same as he continued to threaten her. The victim refused to comply and the man was scared off by two witnesses.
The second incident happened shortly after 10:30 on East 49th Avenue near Arlington Street. A 44 year old woman was walking along E.49th when a man called out to her. He ran up and allegedly pulled out a gun robbing her of her purse. Once he had the purse, he told the woman to expose herself. The victim became very scared and upset, which scared off the suspect.
At 11:00, patrol officers located their person-of-interest when he drove his car into the parking lot of the a motel in Burnaby. He was arrested and police located a replica pistol along with property believed to belong to the victim robbed on E. 49th Avenue.
The suspect is known to police. Several charges including robbery and multiple sex and weapons related offences have been recommended.
