The suspect in a random sucker punch attack in downtown Vancouver one week ago is accused of assaulting another stranger four days earlier, court records reveal.
Both incidents were captured on security video. Earlier this week, Vancouver police shared footage of the Nov. 28 unprovoked assault.
It happened just after 10 p.m. near a busy bus stop outside the Hudson’s Bay in downtown Vancouver.
The 28-year-old victim was walking alone on West Georgia Street towards Seymour Street when police said a stranger lunged at him for no apparent reason, punching him in the face and knocking him to the ground.
Hours after video of the suspect was released, police said a patrol officer spotted the 29-year-old suspect near Library Square and arrested him.
The suspect, who turns 30 later this month, has not yet been charged in the attack outside Hudson’s Bay, but has since been charged with assaulting another man on Nov. 24 in downtown Vancouver.
“By all accounts, this is another unprovoked stranger attack,” Sgt. Steve Addison told Global News on Thursday.
In the earlier incident, police said the victim, 29, was walking near the Fairmont Hotel on West Georgia Street in the middle of the day.
“He actually had his earbuds in and as he was walking down the street, he was punched in the face and knocked to the ground by a complete stranger,” said Addison.
The suspect, whom Global News is not naming as he has not been charged in the Nov. 28 incident, has an extensive criminal history in Alberta, where he was convicted of obstructing or resisting a peace officer, assault causing bodily harm and failing to comply with release orders three times in 2023.
The 29-year-old man also has ties to Vancouver Island, where he was convicted of a June 2020 assault in Port Renfrew, and breaching probation in Duncan in Jan. 2021.
The suspect remains in custody on the Nov. 24 assault charge and is scheduled to appear in Vancouver Provincial Court on Monday for a bail hearing.