(WARNING: This story contains disturbing details)
Marcus van Bylandt was sitting on the couch at his North Vancouver home when he received a call from his 13-year-old son Matthys at around 9:30 p.m. on Monday night.
Matthys was screaming on the line, saying he’d been hit in the eye with an egg.
It happened after someone drove by in a black SUV, blasting rap music.
“I took it as there was a prank, some horseplay,” Marcus said at an RCMP news conference on Friday.
Then Matthys came home, and Marcus saw his son bleeding out his eye.
He pulled out a First Aid kit in the hope that he could wipe away the blood from a small cut. But it wasn’t long before he realized Matthys needed to be taken to hospital.
It turned out that the white of his eye was cut open after a piece of shell literally entered the eye and damaged the optic nerve.
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Matthys was nauseous and in shock as he was taken to hospital, Marcus said.
He was treated in three different facilities, and doctors have asked him to avoid any sporting activity.
He was told that even going up the stairs too quickly could be too much, as it could put more pressure on the eye and create a 50 to 70 per cent chance of him losing vision.
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“I didn’t expect it to be this severe,” Marcus said.
In connection with this case, four suspects have now been identified.
Police say all four of the suspects reside in North Vancouver and three are 18 years old and one is 17 years old.
Police say they have been somewhat cooperative and the suspect vehicle has also been identified. Police are still attempting to identify the man driving the white vehicle that stopped and offered assistance to the victim and ask that he contact the North Vancouver RCMP.
Investigators will be submitting a report to Crown Counsel for consideration of charges with respect to assault causing bodily harm.
Serial eggings
But Matthys isn’t the only one who’s been targeted in egging incidents in North Vancouver in recent days; RCMP Cpl. Richard De Jong said at a Friday news conference that there’s a “serial egger” on the loose in the North Shore community.
On Aug. 10, police attended an incident near Canyon Heights elementary in which eggs had been thrown at a vehicle, De Jong said.
There were no arrests.
READ MORE: An egg tossed at a 13-year-old may have caused permanent eye damage: RCMP
On Aug. 11, police received a report saying young people were “yelling and screaming” in the area of Canyon Heights elementary. Police subsequently found eggs all over the street.
The RCMP patrolled the area but couldn’t find anyone responsible.
Then another incident unfolded on Aug. 20. On Sunset Blvd., which is south of Canyon Heights, a resident was hit with a number of eggs, and police found an empty carton on the street.
“So we knew there was a pattern,” De Jong said.
“We knew somebody in the area was targeting houses, vehicles, perhaps people.”
Matthys’ own incident unfolded on Aug. 21.
And then there was another incident on Aug. 24, at Sutherland Secondary School in North Vancouver, at around 10 p.m.
A teen was targeted with eggs, and his father called police saying they had been flying around the street.
De Jong said police have spoken with an 18-year-old “person of interest” in Matthys’ case, and that the individual was “very cooperative.”
He warned any parents whose children were driving around in a black SUV to “check the back if there’s empty egg cartons.”
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