Man dies after assault at Oppenheimer homeless camp in first Vancouver homicide of 2020
Credit to Author: Susan Lazaruk| Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2020 02:51:49 +0000
A 62-year-old victim of a New Year’s Day assault at a homeless camp in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside has died in hospital — the city’s first homicide victim of 2020.
Vancouver police were called to Oppenheimer Park at around 1 p.m. on Jan. 1 after the man had been assaulted near the basketball court in the northeast corner of the park. Jesus Cristobal-Esteban was taken to hospital but died the next day, on Thursday, police spokeswoman Tania Visintin said Friday.
Police haven’t arrested a suspect in the assault and are investigating, she said.
“We do believe the victim and the suspect had some kind of interaction before the assault occurred,” she said. “It happened in Oppenheimer, so, yes, there are a lot of people in the park and investigators are in the park canvassing (witnesses).”
Cristobal-Esteban had a criminal record with multiple drug-related convictions dating to the late 1990s. He was sentenced 21 years ago to three months in jail after being convicted on two counts of trafficking in a controlled substance, and has had no other charges or convictions since then, according to court records.
Visintin said he was known to police.
It’s the first death at the camp that formed about a year ago. But it comes three weeks after a man was shot at the park and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and two months after another shooting in the park, when a son accidentally shot his mother.
Tent city at Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver, BC Friday, December 13, 2019.
Police about four months ago warned about the rising number of emergency calls to Oppenheimer Park. Last September police said they had seized a record 453 firearms so far at that point in 2019, almost half of which were from the district that houses Oppenheimer and the DTES.
The Vancouver park board said it would apply for a legal injunction against the campers but instead voted to get a third party involved to help house the residents.
On Friday, Visintin said police weren’t seeking an injunction but were allowing the park board time to find housing for the campers. The park board has brought in a “third-party organization to assess the needs of the homeless and how to make recommendations so right now it’s up to that third party to oversee that,” she said.
In the meantime, “we want residents to have safe and secure housing in the park, and public safety is our No. 1 goal,” she said.
Vancouver city spokeswoman Ellie Lambert wouldn’t comment on the death.
“We continue to work with our partners at B.C. Housing and the park board to identify longer-term support for people who are sleeping in the park,” she said in an email.
She said an outreach team visits the park regularly and is working with 40 people who are sleeping there overnight “to connect them with health, housing and other services.”
The city funded a nearby overnight warming centre to open whenever temperatures are at zero Celsius, or feel like zero, and campers can access low-cost meals and free shower and laundry facilities at three nearby community centres, she said.
A request by the park board for comment wasn’t returned.
It’s not known how the efforts to find permanent housing for the campers is progressing. Nor is it known if the city or park board will apply for a court injunction to evict them.
Police will continue to maintain a visible presence, said Visintin.
“It’s unfortunate that some people have to feel unsafe in their community or in their neighbourhood and we’re aware of these concerns,” she said. “And again we encourage anyone who’s a witness to a crime or sees suspicious behaviour to call the police.”
Anyone with information is asked to call VPD homicide detectives at 604-717-2500 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.
—With files from Tiffany Crawford