Burnaby RCMP are investigating multiple reports of people and vehicles being struck by paintballs Saturday evening and early Sunday morning.
Burnaby resident Ryan Bonato says he went out for a late-night drive that evening when his vehicle and another nearby car were suddenly struck by paintballs.
“All of a sudden, just out of nowhere, the car just started getting hit,” he said.
“They were all over the windshield and then they hit the door. Thankfully they didn’t go through the windshield and hit me.”
Bonato says he noticed the shots were coming from a bush. He turned his car around and saw a group of young men running into a black car. He followed the vehicle while on the phone with 911.
“They were hanging out the car shooting me with more paintballs as we were driving,” he said.
“I knew not to turn my windshield wipers on or else they would have smeared it all over the place.”
Once the two vehicles reached a dead end, the suspects ran away.
In a statement, Burnaby RCMP spokesperson Cst. Mike Kalanj said police attempted to track the suspects with the help of police dogs but were unable to find them.
“This vehicle is believed to have been stolen,” he added.
Bonato’s vehicle wasn’t the only one targeted that night. Kalanj said frontline officers responded to two other reports of paintball shooting incidents earlier Saturday evening.
Officers responded to a report of a victim being shot with paintballs just after 8 p.m. near Carleton Avenue and Charles Street.
“It was reported that several male suspects, wearing ski masks, were in an unknown vehicle when one of them shot the paintballs from the vehicle before fleeing the area. Police conducted extensive patrols with negative results. The 19-year-old male victim was uninjured,” said Kalanj.
Just after 9 p.m. that evening, RCMP officers responded to another report of a victim behind hit with paintballs, this time near Willingdon Avenue and Pandora Street.
“The vehicle, which had several male suspects inside, fled the scene after the incident. Police attended and conducted patrols, however; no suspects were located due to a fifteen-minute time delay in reporting. The 13-year-old male victim sustained minor injuries,” said Kalanj.
Bonato says he’s lucky his encounter with the suspected paintball shooters – who he believes were around the ages of 19 and 20 years old – didn’t have an unfortunate outcome.
“Afterwards, when you get home at the end of it all and the adrenaline all goes down, you think about all the ways it could’ve played out,” he said.
“That’s when the adult side of you starts to come out and you start to worry and be like, ‘wow, that could’ve went a lot differently.’”
The police investigation into the incidents is ongoing.