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Police in North Vancouver are releasing images of a suspect and vehicle caught on surveillance camera footage near a rainbow crosswalk the night it was defaced.
Police are releasing the images in the hopes the public might recognize the vehicle or have information that could help the investigation, said Const. Mansoor Sahak, spokesman for the North Vancouver RCMP.
On Aug. 2, when Pride Week festivities were just wrapping up, someone spray-painted hateful messages targeting the LGBTQAI2S+ community on the crosswalk at 14th Street and Lonsdale Avenue.
The message appeared to mimic biblical language, although the words themselves aren’t in the Bible.
It was the second time in two years that a rainbow crosswalk had been targeted with graffiti in North Vancouver.
Sahak said images captured by a nearby surveillance camera showed a black vehicle – identified as a Chrysler 300 – parking near to the rainbow crosswalk at 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 2. The driver is then seen walking to the crosswalk, using spray paint and then walking back to the car and driving away, he said.
Police are asking anyone who recognizes the vehicle, or who has information about the crime, to contact the North Vancouver RCMP.
Both the North Shore Pride Alliance and City of North Vancouver have condemned the defacing of the crosswalk.
Pride Alliance founder Chris Bolton told the North Shore News in August the vandalism was hurtful.
“It brings me back to that eight-year-old at Ridgeway Elementary school being told that I was wrong, and I don’t belong,” he said.
Mayor Linda Buchanan issued a statement saying she was “saddened and angered” by the actions. “It’s not who we are as a community,” she said.
Buchanan said at the time she believes the city’s residents overwhelmingly believe in love and equity and that efforts to undermine that are “unacceptable.”
Bolton said the most supportive thing the wider community can do is confront hate in any form it arises.
“You have to make a difference where you are. That’s what it is. If you see anybody being othered or discriminated against, you have to stop it dead in its tracks,” he said. “And that goes for LGBTQ issues, it goes to the BIPOC community. It goes for everybody.”
In 2019, the City of North Vancouver was the first municipality on the North Shore to install a rainbow crosswalk as a symbol of welcoming and inclusion.
In 2021, the District of North Vancouver’s rainbow crosswalk outside Lynn Valley Village was defaced with hateful language just days after it was unveiled. No one was ever arrested.
Meanwhile, anyone with information about this graffiti can contact North Vancouver RCMP at 604-985-1311 and quote file #22-19179.
Sahak said anyone who has been negatively impacted by the incident can also speak with the North Vancouver RCMP’s victim services.
