Charges have now been laid in relation to two random hammer attacks that sent two men to hospital on Sunday night.
Around 10:30 p.m., a 67-year-old Vancouver man was walking on the seawall in the area of Quebec Street at Terminal Avenue. An unknown man approached him from behind and hit him in the head with a hammer, which knocked him to the ground. The victim was struck again in the head and on the arm before a passerby came to his aid, and the suspect walked off. The victim was taken to hospital for the treatment of a broken arm and lacerations to the head. He has since been released from hospital.
Shortly before 11 p.m., a second man was attacked at Main and East Hastings Street. A 49-year-old Vancouver man was also hit in the head with a hammer, knocked to the ground and rendered unconscious. He remains in hospital in stable condition.
The suspect was subsequently arrested at a nearby McDonald’s Restaurant without incident.
Police believe that the suspect and the victims were not known to each other prior to the attacks, and that the suspect’s mental illness and long-term substance abuse played a role in the assaults.
Twenty-seven year-old Tyrone Wayne Machiskinic of Vancouver has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of the possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Machiskinic has been held in custody pending his next scheduled court appearance at 9:30 a.m. this morning in Vancouver Provincial Court.
As the case is now before the courts, there is no more information to share at this time.
