Two young boys were assaulted by a teen in a washroom at the Abbotsford Airport on Wednesday, and police are asking the apparent guardian of the suspect to contact them.
At 12:10 p.m. two brothers, aged six and nine, entered the men’s washroom near the arrivals area inside the airport terminal building. Both boys were standing in front of urinals when a teenage male approached. The suspect grabbed at the genital area of the younger brother, and then quickly bit the stomach area of the older sibling.
The boys started yelling, and drew attention to the assaults.
The teenaged suspect appeared to have been accompanied by an older male, who physically escorted him out of the washroom immediately following the incidents.
The Abbotsford Police Department’s Major Crime Unit is investigating, and detectives are anxious to identify both the suspect and the older man in his company, says a police press release.
A witness to the incident felt that it was possible the suspect had special needs, and that the older man was either his guardian or caregiver.
"It's possible the guardian didn't understand exactly what happened," said police spokesman Ian MacDonald.
The witness saw him and the teen suspect leave in a hurry.
MacDonald said it would be 'timely' for the elder man to come forward, and noted detectives are screening through surveillance video from the airport. They may be able to publicly release an image of the apparent guardian.
The two victims involved are from a Lower Mainland community other than Abbotsford, but MacDonald did not want to say which one out of respect for their privacy. They were traumatized by the incident.
The suspect is described as a caucasian male, 13-16 years of age, with a thin build, 5’4” to 5’8,” short brown hair, having prominent front teeth or braces, wearing a red short-sleeved shirt or T-shirt with blue pants.
Accompanying him was a caucasian male, 50 to 60 years of age, with grey hair with a grey beard, wearing a dark coloured shirt with a “CAT” logo on it.
MacDonald said investigators compared the assault with a similar incident at Costco in October 2011, when a seven-year-old boy was assaulted in a stall. A boy who appeared to be about 10 years old crawled under the door, and bit him on the lip, causing an injury that required stitches.
While the circumstances of the crime are similar, MacDonald said the description of the boy in the first assault is much different, and police don't believe they are dealing with the same suspect.
Anyone with information about this investigation, or the identity of the persons involved, should call the Abbotsford Police at 604-859-5225 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.