Three men file suit against
Harbour Centre, security firm
for savage beatings
Sam Cooper, Vancouver Province, June 29, 2011
The three alleged victims — Luis Larrain (middle),
Shawn Alexander (left) and Richard Kreke.
Photo: Ian Smith, Vancouver Province.
A damages suit is expected to be filed Tuesday against Harbour Centre Mall
and Fusion Security, said Douglas King, a lawyer for Pivot Legal Society.
King said a BC Human Rights Complaint also will be filed after three men allege
they were beaten by security guards. Photo: Screengrab, GoogleMap.
Three men who were allegedly targeted for being alcoholics and brutalized by mall cops have sued a private security firm and a downtown Vancouver mall.
A small claims damages suit was filed in B.C. Provincial Court against Harbour Centre Complex Ltd. and Fusion Security Inc., Douglas King, a lawyer for Pivot Legal Society said on Tuesday. King said a BC Human Rights Complaint also will be filed.
One of the victims, 36-year-old Shawn Alexander, said on Oct. 28, 2010, he and his best friend 55-year-old Richard Kreke were pulled into a locked stairwell and beaten after leaving the mall’s BC Liquor Store.
On that day a Province reporter was in the area, where two guards were heard advising the two men they were “banned” from the mall.
“What did I do? Why are you punching me!” a man screamed repeatedly.
Two liquor store clerks, who gave police statements but asked not to be named by media, said neither man appeared to create a problem inside the liquor store, right across from the stairwell.
At a press conference in the Downtown Eastside Tuesday, Alexander lifted his bangs to show a permanent scar on his scalp, where he received 13 stitches after the beating.
“I don’t know how someone would actually do this to another human,” he said. Pointing at 55-year-old Kreke’s left rib cage, he added: “The only way they could have bruised him more is if they flipped him over. How would you feel if your best friend got dragged into a stairwell and almost beaten to death?”
A third man, 53-year-old Luis Larrain, alleged he was beaten in a separate incident on Dec. 24, 2010.
Larrain said he was in the mall the previous day when a guard saw him selling a copy of “Hope in Shadows” — a calendar that portrays the plight of the poor in the Downtown Eastside.
He said he agreed to stop selling the calendars in the mall, but returned the following day because he badly needed to use a washroom. He was allowed, but the guard allegedly followed him toward the washroom and, without warning, threw him into a locked stairwell. Another guard was called to join the alleged attack.
“They handcuffed me, put me on the floor and jumped on my back,” Larrain said. He said his shoulder was broken and he involuntarily defecated from the force of the beating, after which the guards laughed.
“They were not allowed to do that,” Larrain said. “They handcuffed me for nothing.”
King said police investigated the alleged assaults but did not lay charges.
He said Pivot believes the cases are strongly supported by witnesses, including mall workers. “The real kicker was when someone in the Harbour Centre office tower called us independently and said they were sick of seeing guards [targeting addicts and beating them],” King said. “There has to be repercussions when private security single out individuals for how they look.”
On Tuesday Douglas Hume, general manager of Harbour Centre Complex Ltd., issued a statement saying: “We have been advised by counsel to forego comment on the substance of these claims while the matter is before the courts.”
The statement notes police laid no charges in the two separate cases. A spokesman for Fusion Security Inc. did not respond to an interview request Tuesday.
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