Transit police are investigating reports that a man on a Burnaby SkyTrain platform was pretending to shoot other passengers Friday morning.
“Basically what concerns police about this type of situation is possibly the escalation of his behaviour,” Metro Vancouver Transit Police Const. Mike Yake told the NOW. “This is something that we’d obviously like to take care of right away before his behaviour does escalate.”
Yake said police got multiple text message reports at 7:30 a.m. about a man on the Metrotown SkyTrain platform who was “acting aggressively” toward a couple of other passengers.
A witness told police the man had formed his hand into a pistol and pretended to shoot another person, Yake said.
One man told News 1130 that the man had pretended to shoot everyone on the platform.
Officers responded and searched the area “extremely thoroughly” but were unable to locate the suspect, according to Yake.
Investigators are now hoping to speak to anyone who witnessed the event and will also review security video of the platform, he said.
He said it was too early to tell whether anything criminal had happened.
“Incidents like this are extremely disturbing,” Yake said. “Members of the public have the right to use public transit without having to be fearful for their safety whatsoever, so when we hear about situations like this, we obviously take them very seriously, and we’re going to investigate them to our full capability."
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