A 49-year-old man is facing assault charges after he allegedly attacked a stranger with a weapon in downtown Vancouver Tuesday. William Pitt has been charged with one count of assault with a weapon and one count of assault causing bodily harm, the Vancouver Police Department said in a news release Wednesday. The charges stem from an incident that occurred near Hastings and Seymour streets around 11 a.m., police said. A woman was walking in that area when she was approached by a man she didn’t know. “The man allegedly struck the woman in the abdomen and then walked away from the area,” the release reads. “A witness followed the suspect and called 911.” Police located the suspect nearby and arrested him. The victim was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the VPD. Pitt was detained after a bail hearing and remains in custody, police said. Online court records indicate his next appearance is scheduled for Friday in Vancouver provincial court. It appears that this is not Pitt’s first assault charge of the year. A man with the same name and date of birth is listed in B.C.’s Court Services Online database as having been sentenced for assault on Sept. 9, just six days before Tuesday’s incident. The sentence in that case was one day in jail, to be followed by 12 months of probation. The original charge in the file was assault causing bodily harm, and it was laid on Aug. 4. The accused was convicted of the lesser charge of assault.
