Vancouver police have announced the arrest of a suspect in the assault of a 61-year old man at the Granville SkyTrain Station.
Within 24 hours of releasing the video of the victim being pushed down a flight stairs from behind there were “More than 80,000″ views and people shared the video across social media Constable Tania Visintin said.
Late Saturday afternoon a citizen with a keen eye saw the video on Instagram and saw the suspect walking near Granville and Georgia streets, and called 9-1-1.
Thanks to that citizen, Vancouver Police arrested a 53-year-old man for the March 1 assault, which occurred around 5:30 p.m. inside the Granville Street SkyTrain Station. VPD investigators now believe the victim and suspect had a brief verbal confrontation outside the station, and that the suspect followed the victim into the station, pushed him down a set of stairs, kicked him, and fled before police were called.
“We had no doubt help from the public would be instrumental in solving this case, as it has with so many other high profile attacks in the downtown core,” adds Constable Visintin. “We understand how shocking this video was for some, and we are extremely grateful for the amount of views and shares this video had. Those shares on social media helped us make another quick arrest in an unsolved attack.”
The suspect cannot be named as he has not yet been formally charged.
