From CTV
VANCOUVER — Police are asking for the public’s help identifying a suspect in an alleged hate crime that targeted a Muslim teenager who was wearing a hijab on public transit.
Authorities said the 17-year-old victim and her mother boarded a bus in downtown Vancouver on the afternoon of May 21, and that a fellow passenger began mocking her ethnicity and asking if she was Canadian.
The suspect then told her, “Your smile is making me want to punch you in the face,” or something to that effect, before punching the teenager in the head several times and partially knocking off her headscarf, according to a news release from Metro Vancouver Transit Police.
The victim’s mother and another passenger intervened, and the suspect got off the bus at Hastings Street and Jackson Avenue. The Good Samaritan followed her and called 911 only to be attacked as well, police said.
Authorities allege the suspect took off her boots and began hitting the Good Samaritan, then brandished a knife and ran away.
The teen victim wasn’t physically injured during the attack but was left shaken up, and did not want to speak publicly on Monday. The director of the Muslim Care Centre, a charity in the Downtown Eastside where she volunteers, told CTV News she is an honour student in high school who is attending university next year.
“She’s keeping her hopes and spirit high. She is a very strong person,” said Adnan Akiel, the director of the centre.
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