Bus attack on teen probed as hate crime

Transit Police are investigating what they are describing as a hate crime after a teen was mocked for her head scarf on board a bus and punched in the head several times.

On May 21, a 17-year-old girl wearing a head scarf and her mother boarded a bus near Pacific Centre Mall in downtown Vancouver. During the ride, another woman on the bus began asking the teen where she was from and if she was a Canadian.

Transit Police said the woman then “ridiculed and mocked the teen’s ethnicity” before making a comment to the effect of, “Your smile is making me want to punch you in the face.”

Police allege the woman then punched the teen in the head several times and the head scarf was partly knocked off before the teen’s mother and another passenger were able to separate the two.

A Good Samaritan followed the woman off the bus at Hastings Street and Jackson Avenue in Vancouver while calling 911.

When the woman noticed she was being followed, she took off her boots and, police allege, began assaulting the Good Samaritan before pulling out a knife.

The Good Samaritan then backed off and the woman fled.

Transit Police have now released surveillance footage and images of the woman, in hopes the public can help identify her.

The suspect is described as possibly being an Indigenous woman, approximately 40 years old, about 5-foot-8 and weighing about 140 pounds. She was wearing a black hat, sunglasses, a dark-coloured shirt with the word PINK written on the back, blue denim shorts, black boots and carrying an iridescent black and silver backpack.

Anyone who recognizes the woman is asked to contact Metro Vancouver Transit Police at 604-516-7419 or by text at 87-77-77 and cite file 2020-9802.