Saanich police are investigating after a video of a senior punching a teen at a British Columbia Tim Hortons surfaced online.
Police said the incident was believed to have happened at a Saanich Tim Hortons in April but the video was posted on social media only recently, prompting an investigation. Saanich is a district municipality on the southern end of Vancouver Island.
“We’ve spoken to one person involved, and our patrol division is currently investigating this,” Insp. Damian Kowalewich told The Epoch Times.
The video, posted on Youtube and Instagram by bystander Isaac Campbell, begins with an elderly man standing over a teenage boy who is seated in a booth alongside three other teens. The older man punches the boy a few times and then steps back.
Another man in an orange hooded shirt then steps between the boy and the senior, and asks what is going on. The older man accuses the youth of throwing food at him. The teen shakes his head back and forth, saying no.
Two other men move toward the booth but stand back and do not interact with the older man or teen.
“You don’t have the right to punch him,” one of the teens at the booth can be heard saying.
The man in orange says if the teen is interfering with people, he should expect to “get a reaction” out of them. He then goes on to tell the teen not to be a victim, but to deal with the consequences of his behaviour.
Some of the teens at the booth can be seen smiling and laughing.
Before the video cuts off, another one of the men standing by the booth moves in and slaps the teen on the head and walks away.
Insp. Kowalewich said that the video doesn’t show the whole story.
“Videos of situations like this only account for a very small portion of probably what the larger event was,” he said. “We know there’s a narrative out there on social media and the internet. Information has come to us that leads us to believe that there were some actions that led up to this encounter that these two had.”
Kowalewich said police were looking to find out what actually happened, adding it could result in consequences for “multiple people” involved.
“We don’t condone people taking matters into their own hands, and we want to figure out exactly what this whole situation looked like, and make an assessment of if any crime occurred,” he said, adding that the incident is being taken seriously because it happened in a public place.
“Violence of any level is unacceptable,” he said.
Police are asking any witnesses or anyone with information to contact them or Crime Stoppers.
