Police have opened a hate crime investigation after a suspect allegedly used a racial slur and attacked a girl on a TTC bus in the city’s east end earlier this week.
Police say that the victim was on the 23 Dawes bus near Main Station at around 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday when the alleged assault occurred.
In a news release issued on Friday, police said that investigators are treating the incident as a “suspected hate-motivated offence” after consulting with the TPS’s Hate Crime Unit.
Several surveillance camera images of the suspect have been released.
“Police believe there are multiple victims to this incident and are appealing to the public to come forward if they witnessed this incident or captured it on video,” the release states.
The incident comes in the wake of another suspected hate-motivated incident at Bloor-Yonge Station on Jan. 18.
Police have said that the suspect in that incident allegedly struck one person on the head, which resulted in their religious head covering being knocked over and falling to the ground.
There have also been a rash of other violent incidents on the TTC in recent weeks, prompting police to deploy 80 officers on the transit system daily for the time being.
The suspect in the incident on the 23 Dawes bus is described as approximately 40 years old and between six-feet and six-foot-one in height with a medium build. He is also believed to have tattoos on his face and hands, police say.
