A young hockey player was randomly assaulted by a man while visiting Whistler for a game Monday.
The Squamish resident was walking through the village with six teammates around 11:30 at night when approached by a group of four others.
One of the four men hit the Squamish hockey player before the group left the scene. The hockey player said the two groups had no relationship.
“According to the victim, there was no reason for altercation,” said Constable Afzeel Yakub, adding that the RCMP cannot confirm this until the suspect is found.
If it is confirmed that the two parties did not know each other, the incident becomes more serious.
“We get a lot of fights on Friday and Saturday nights that are not people breaking the law, they are just people being rowdy. But Monday night’s incident clearly goes beyond that line,” added Yakub.
Yakub was not able to give details of the injury but said that it has to be a good physical injury for the RMCP to pursue the case.
The RCMP are currently investigating the incident and hope to find the suspect.
The suspect was wearing a cast on his arm and walking with a crutch during Monday’s incident. He was described as a French-speaking, Caucasian male between 19 to 25 years of age, standing at 6’2” and weighing 180 to 200 pounds. He has a slim build and short, curly brown hair.
Anyone with information regarding this incident or any other criminal offense is asked to call the Whistler RCMP or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Crimestoppers does not require your name, just your information and can offer a reward up to $2,000.
Beyond Monday night’s assault, the past weekend was generally busy for RCMP officers, who dealt with a total of 56 calls for service. Calls included one cause of disturbance, four noise complaints, five counts of people being drunk in public, three impaired driving calls, two collisions, and six reports of mischief.
A significant number of thefts and break ins were also reported, with five calls for break and enters and five thefts. The RCMP is reminding everyone to take extra caution in matters of security.
