As concerns continue on about anti-Asian attacks against women in Vancouver and across North America during the COVID-19 pandemic, another such assault has taken place. In this case, a bystander assisted in apprehending the suspect.

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) stated on March 31 that in the early evening on March 30, a woman of East Asian descent was walking in southeast Vancouver.

As she continued on her way, she noticed that a man ahead of her was standing and starting at her.

Because she felt frightened, she decided to turn around and walked away quickly. However, the man followed her.

He then grabbed her by the hair and pulled her backward before he ran away.

A witness driving by got out of his car, chased the suspect, and held him until police arrived.

Officers arrested the male suspect for assault and took him into custody. This case is under review by the VPD hate-crime investigator.

Over the past week, two other assaults involving racial elements were reported to police.

One of the incidents involved an Asian woman near UBC who was taking out the garbage into the alley when she was punched by an unknown male suspect on March 27.

The other incident was reported by a manager at a business in Richmond about an alleged assault involving racial slurs on March 29. 

The VPD had stated in its year-end report for 2020 that hate-crimes against Asian Canadians and people of Asian descent had surged by 717 percent from 2019 (12 cases) to 2020 (98 cases.

In addition, a survey conducted by several Asian Canadian organizations revealed in September that 70 percent of anti-Asian incidents in B.C. involved women as victims.