Vancouver Police say a man violently assaulted the driver of a vehicle before stealing it and crashing it in Burnaby.
VPD Cst. Tania Visintin tells Vancouver Is Awesome that the suspect was currently living in the area of East 5th Avenue and Cassiar Street with two friends.
On Thursday, March 18 around 6 p.m., the two friends came home to find the suspect heavily intoxicated, which prompted them to ask him to leave.
"The suspect left the home, threw his basket of clothing on the front lawn and then climbed onto the hood of a vehicle (with the driver inside)," she writes. "He broke the passenger side mirror of the car, opened the driver side door and punched the driver."
After dragging the driver out of the vehicle, the suspect drove the car eastbound into Burnaby.
Shortly after, VPD dispatch advised of a crash near Henning Drive and Boundary Avenue in Burnaby. Officers attended the area and located the suspect.
"Charges of robbery, mischief and breach of conditional sentence order have been recommended to Crown," adds Visintin.
"The driver of the stolen vehicle was taken to hospital for (thankfully) minor injuries."
Local gives an eyewitness account of Vancouver carjacking incident on social media
Redditor Odogogod says they watched the carjacking take place this week. They took to the social media platform Thursday to share what they saw when the vehicle was stolen.
"About 30 minutes ago I was at 4th and Cassiar," they write. "As an SUV was turning right a shirtless dude approached it walking down the middle of the street.
"He’s screaming and yelling, but I was too far away to hear what was he was saying. I’m kinda confused why the SUV didn’t just turn left, making me think that maybe this was a continuation of an incident... but not sure."
Next, they say the suspect began to smash the mirror and climb onto the hood of the vehicle. "The SUV starts backing up (towards another car) as [the suspect] climbs on [the] roof.
"Driver gets out, starts running. Shirtless drives off in [the] SUV."
As they started dialling 911, they saw a police car heading in the direction of the SUV.
In the comments below, several other people say they also witnessed parts of the incident.
Johnny945 writes, "Pretty sure I saw that guy getting arrested outside the Audi on Boundary and Lougheed. About 10 cop cars and a helicopter. Saw a white guy with no shirt on in cuffs."
