Residents of a mobile home park in Surrey are shaken up after two of their neighbours were assaulted during a string of home invasions in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Officers were called to the area near King George Boulevard and 160 Street around 1:30 a.m. after reports of a man attempting to enter homes and attacking people.
Security footage from one home obtained by CTV News showed a man approaching the front door before banging on it. The male homeowner then opened the door before being attacked. The two then exchanged blows.
The attack reportedly continued out on the street.
“I looked out and saw him on the ground, and this man – this big man – was on top of him, just pummelling him,” said Liana Wicklund.
Wicklund, who lives down the street, said she quickly called 911.
While out of sight of the security camera. The male victim can be heard screaming for help.
The suspect then can be seen leading the man’s female partner back towards the house yelling at her to get her car keys.
Other neighbours were awoken by the chaos.
“We were asleep, and we just heard banging and yelling. ‘Help! Help!’” said Julie Ropas.
“Then we opened it, and all we saw was him standing there, holding a bloody hockey stick, it was frightening,” she continued. Ropas and her husband brought their neighbour inside to help him, before he took back off to help his wife across the street.
Wicklund says the suspects rampage did not end there.
“I watched him proceed to the next home, and he was banging and smashing on the vehicle,” she said.
“Then he was banging on the door and he’s trying to open the vehicle, he was banging, banging on the door, trying to open the neighbours (door) and he couldn’t get in,” she continued.
The man then allegedly went and broke the window of the park’s boardroom, before police located and arrested him shortly after.
“The matter is still under investigation, but at this time this appears to be a random incident, and the suspect is unknown to the victims,” said Sgt. Tige Pollock of the Surrey Police Service.
Wicklund says this is a tight-knit community where’s she’s always felt safe.
“I’m going to be a little more secure in everything I do,” she said. “My heart’s still racing,”
Police say the suspect is known to them and has a violent history.
He remains in custody, while charges have been recommended to Crown counsel.
