Warning: Graphic images contained in this story
Two young people were allegedly violently assaulted outside a Yarrow gas station on May 31 by three men after the two were accused of loitering while waiting for a taxi.
Both 18-year-old Shayla Bousqet and her friend, 21-year-old Javan Onderwater, were sent to hospital after being left with large gashes on their heads, and contusions and red shovel marks on their torsos after the attack by people allegedly connected to the business.
Bousquet said she and Onderwater spent the sunny day on May 31 by the Vedder River in Yarrow. Later in the evening they went to the business area on Yarrow Central Road.
They called a taxi and were waiting around the side of the Petro-Canada gas station next to the box of ice. At 11 p.m., someone who told the two that they were the owner came out, locked the door, and told them to move on.
“We told him our cab was about to be there,” Bousquet told The Progress. “He wasn’t telling us to leave. He was telling us to go near the front doors. We were smoking so why would he want us closer to the (gas) pumps?”
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That’s when Bousquet said they refused. She insists they weren’t rude, they just told him they were waiting for a taxi and he could call the police if he wanted them gone.
“He said ‘I don’t call the police,’ and he went back inside,” she said.
“He comes out 30 seconds later with a shovel. He attacked Javan first, doesn’t interact with me. As Javan is trying to fight him off, he breaks the metal of the shovel over Javan’s shoulder and the piece flies off.”
At that point the man, described by Bousquet as South Asian, ran back inside. They yelled at him and right away he came out with two more men.
“I don’t know if they were shovel handles or what, but at least two of them had big sticks,” she said. “The two young men came at Javan and the older dude came at me.”
The attack left Javan with a serious cut on the top of his head. When he fell to the ground, Bousquet said they came at her and hit her multiple times, the final blow also splitting her head open.
“People starting coming out of the house, an older lady speaking (another language) telling them to stop, I assume, because they did stop. I was really flustered, I could feel that I was bleeding.”
Javan called 911 and after about 30 minutes police arrived just before an ambulance.
Bousquet said it was somewhat confusing but that she saw a few people leave in a vehicle. No arrests were made at the scene as far as she could tell.
A Chilliwack RCMP spokesperson confirmed there was an incident on that day at that location and that it is under investigation. RCMP file number is 22-19228. No one has been charged according to Court Services Online.
Bousquet said all three men were South Asian, the older man was wearing a turban but the others were not.
The Progress reached out to Baljit Atwal, the owner of the Petro-Canada in Yarrow but a male on the phone who called back directed questions to a Surrey-based law firm that did not return a request to comment on the case.
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