Metro Vancouver Transit Police / Facebook
On Friday, December 14 a violent SkyTrain incident broke out on the Expo Line that involved a smashed cellphone and pepper spray.
Vancouver Is Awesome spoke to Sergeant Clint Hampton, Media Relations Officer, Metro Vancouver Transit Police, who explained what took place that day.
He reports that at approximately 6:30 pm transit officers were approached by a young man regarding a group of young people who were vaping on the Metrotown SkyTrain platform. Following this, he says that the officers talked to the group, but he adds that, "they watched the young man tell the officers what they were doing."
With that in mind, he said that the group stopped vaping, and that they boarded a different train from the young man. The train was headed to Waterfront Station, and at the next stop the group got off and proceeded to get on the same train as the young man.
"Unfortunately, there are no cameras to capture what happened in that train," said Sgt. Hampton. "We do know that a young woman's phone was smashed, however."
Following this, the group she was with reportedly deployed pepper spray in the train, and there were a number of witnesses to this. Consequently, the train car had to be taken out of service to be cleaned.
A Reddit User also shared an account of the story, but it is vastly different - her version sounds markedly more heated and violent. For example, she states that:
"Eventually this kid makes his way over and proceeds to beat them up even more, while me and my friend are stuck in the middle of them. We were getting stepped on, squished by him all while trying to breathe properly and trying to avoid any punches by covering our heads. In the moment there was so much screaming, crying and visibly upset passengers trembling in their seats. I remember this poor girl screaming that she has asthma, and she was clearly struggling to breathe more than anyone else on the train. Luckily, her friend pushed her towards an open window to help her out. It was pure insanity in there. Everyone was frantic, and could not predict what this dude would do next."
Transit Police state that the investigation is ongoing and they do not know the identity of the original complainant.
If you have information, you can contact Transit Police at 604-515-8300 or text 87-77-77.
