A video recorded outside of a Vancouver grocery store allegedly shows the aftermath of a violent assault on an employee.
Local filmmaker Darren Reiter was outside of the Nesters Market at 288 E. Broadway near Kingsway around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday (March 22) when he spotted a couple of employees walking a shoplifter out.
"The shoplifter assaulted the store manager," he told Vancouver Is Awesome in a phone interview. "He punched him in the face."
Prior to the assault, the store employees recovered a couple of cereal boxes that the individual allegedly stole from the store, according to the Mount Pleasant resident.
"He walked away and then he actually came back to sort of continue fighting them," he noted.
Over the course of the pandemic, Reiter said he's seen an uptick in violent incidents in his neighbourhood.
"Things seem to have shifted in the last year or two," he remarked. "I think the lion's share of these incidents goes unreported."
The employee who was allegedly assaulted told Reiter that these incidents happen often, adding that it was the third time he'd been in a physical altercation that morning.
When asked if he feared for his own safety while he was recording the aftermath of the altercation, Reiter said he was "definitely watching [his] back."
V.I.A. has reached out to Nesters Market and the Vancouver Police Department for comment.
