A New Westminster man is warning the public after he and his partner were attacked at a gas station on Sixth Street last week.
It all happened on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. Hnat Richards and his partner were at the Chevron gas station at Sixth and Brantford streets around 2:30 p.m. when a man they’d never met walked up to them and started making conversation.
He asked the couple if they knew where the nearest rehab facility was, and when they said they didn’t, he asked about their car.
“He started touching our car and started to peel this plastic that protects from water getting into our car, and we asked him not to do that, and he even poked a hole in it after we said that. So that’s when we said to him, kindly, ‘You have to go; you have to keep walking, please,’” Richards recalled.
The man, however, didn’t walk away. Instead, Richards said the man got defensive and tried to provoke him, asking him what he was “going to do about it.”
Then he made racist and homophobic remarks, all the while threatening Richards and his partner, Richards said.
“At this point, I asked Matt to ask the people in Chevron to call the cops, which they did,” Richards said.
But before the call was made, the man walked away.
Thinking the ordeal was over, Richards and his partner got into their car and started to drive off.
They were waiting to turn right onto Sixth Street when from out of the corner of his eye, Richards, who was driving, said he saw the man running towards them with two large rocks in his hands.
“I told Matt, ‘My god, he’s coming!’ It happened so fast,” he said. “He came up and he was aiming the boulders at our face and he threw them through the glass, shattered all our glass and nearly missed me.”
By the time police arrived, the suspect was gone. They searched the area but couldn’t find him, Richards said.
He spoke with an officer after the incident and gave a description of the man, who was sporting a distinctive neck tattoo of a chain with a cross, he said. The officer seemed to know who the man was, Richards added.
“I thought I was a tough guy, but this has taken a toll,” he told the Record.
Richards said police have since identified the suspect and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
The Record contacted the New Westminster Police Department for further details on the incident but has yet to hear back.
Richards hopes by sharing his story, people in the community will be on alert and the suspect won’t get a chance to hurt anyone else.
