Police response adds to woman’s pain
Injured restaurant manager says authorities dismissed her claim of being attacked on street
Vancouver’s hospitality industry has rallied around a local restaurant manager who suffered a series of gruesome facial injuries after a headfirst fall that she says was caused by a violent shove from a stranger.
The incident, which occurred on Oct. 7 at the corner of Main Street and King Edward, left Nomad’s Shawn Jones with four cracked teeth, a smashed eye socket, and a skull fracture.
Jones, 34, said she was leaving Locus Restaurant and Lounge around 10 p.m. after having a glass of wine with her boyfriend. She left alone and was walking and texting, she said, when a stranger accused her of failing to watch where she was going, then assaulted her.
“The last thing I remember is just getting shit for almost walking into someone and being shoved from behind,” said Jones.
The push sent Jones facefirst into the sidewalk, she said, leaving her bloodied, concussed and traumatized. After speaking with officers from the Vancouver Police Department, she was taken by ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital, where she was fitted for braces and spent the night.
Jones said that she doesn’t remember much, other than “really little flickers here and there,” which gave the Vancouver police little to go on. She told police about the shove, but couldn’t provide a description of the assailant.
“The police asked me how much I had had to drink, if I was sure I didn’t just trip, where I had been, how much I had been drinking — over and over again, they asked me that,” said Jones.
VPD spokesman Sgt. Jason Robillard confirmed that police did investigate injuries suffered by a Vancouver woman on the date and at the location described. Robillard said police looked at surveillance video and spoke with several witnesses, but were unable to turn up “any information that would suggest there was an assault component to this.”
Jones said police had not followed up with her. She expressed dismay at what she felt was a lack of support and protection.
Where she has felt support, however, is from friends and colleagues in Vancouver’s tight-knit hospitality community.
After working and making connections at high-end establishments Chambar and Hawksworth, Jones was recently named the general manager at Main Street’s Nomad Restaurant. But as a new employee, her medical plan did not come into effect until her three-month probation ended a week after the incident, meaning her muchneeded dental work, estimated at over $6,000, will unfortunately not be covered.
A GoFundMe campaign launched Tuesday by a close friend of Jones to help cover these costs reached its goal within 24 hours. By Wednesday, the fundraiser had exceeded its $7,500 goal by over $10,000. It currently sits at $17,150, as support pours in from people who have worked with Jones over her more than a decade in the industry.
“It feels overwhelming,” Jones said. “It’s unbelievable. I never even remotely expected that to happen. Most of those — 90 per cent of those — are people I know. (...) I never for a moment expected that sort of response.”
It’s not just about the money, however. In a way, it’s about validation after feeling disbelieved by the authorities.
“It’s been really difficult with the police, and I feel like they’re trying not to follow up on it,” she said. “They’re saying they don’t have any camera or corroboration for the story.
“I feel like all of those people (who contributed to the fundraiser) speak volumes to my character.”
Elle Starr, the friend who launched the campaign, said that Jones has insisted on donating anything above and beyond her recovery costs to charity, once the final costs are known.