Vancouver park board to discuss violence at Oppenheimer Park
Credit to Author: Tiffany Crawford| Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 14:04:54 +0000
The Vancouver park board will hold a special meeting to discuss what to do with the campers in Oppenheimer Park, as concern mounts about an increase in violent crimes in the area.
The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the park board on Beach Avenue.
It follows three targeted shootings this week that happened within 15 hours of each other in the Downtown Eastside, and a call last week from Vancouver police Deputy Chief Const. Howard Chow, who said sex assaults, shootings, and stabbings have increased in and around the park.
He said emergency calls to Oppenheimer Park had increased by 87 per cent from June to August this year, compared to 2018.
The VPD is calling for a court injunction to clear the ongoing tent city in the park.
Meantime, a man and a woman have been arrested by Vancouver police in relation to one of the three targeted shootings.
Police say Thomas Joseph Brown, 26, and Desirae Lorell Cardinal, 31, were arrested Tuesday and are now in custody. Brown is charged with one count of unlawfully discharging a firearm and possessing a firearm contrary to an order, while Cardinal is charged with unlawfully discharging a firearm.
Those arrests related to the third shooting, that occurred Monday night at the Grand Union Hotel at 74 West Hastings St. A 50-year-old Vancouver man was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
The first shooting was at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday outside the offices of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users in the 300-block of East Hastings and put a 50-year-old man from Surrey in hospital. Three people were seen fleeing the scene.
Three hours later two people were shot outside the International Village Mall at the corner of Abbott and Pender streets. A 28-year-old Langley man and a 25-year-old Surrey man were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. No suspects have been arrested in that case.
ticrawford@postmedia.com
-With files from David Carrigg and Dan Fumano