Two young offenders, just 13 and 14-years-old, are facing charges of assault after an attack on a man outside the Braid Street SkyTrain station in New Westminster. The victim was waiting for a bus around 10 p.m. on May 25 when he saw a group of teens kicking a bicycle locker. When the man asked them to stop it quickly became confrontational. The boy moved towards the man with a rusty blade, yelling obscenities and screaming, grabbing the victim’s briefcase before running away.
Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan says, “the young girl came running over and punched the victim in the face and then took off after the boy.”
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Police say the teens are well known to them. The Coquitlam boy has had 50 negative contacts with officers, with charges involving robbery, theft and assault with a weapon. The 13-year-old girl has had a hundred contacts with police and a criminal record that includes assault with a weapon and robbery.
Transit police caught the two at the Lougheed SkyTrain Station after the attack. The boy is in juvenile jail again, charged with assault with a weapon and theft under $5,000 for the victim’s briefcase. As well as breaching release conditions for two prior robberies.
“By being arrested and then released, they aren’t getting the help they need,” says Drennan. “What we would like to see is these chronic or prolific offenders remanded in custody, sent somewhere for some kind of treatment, rehabilitation, whatever might be involved in trying to bring them back into a meaningful place.”
The victim is relieved the assailants have been arrested and his briefcase was recovered with everything still in it.
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