Man arrested after 'vile' racist and sexist rant on Metro Vancouver bus
Man verbally berated women around him on bus to Simon Fraser University
A man has been charged after he was captured on video Thursday berating women with racist and sexist taunts on a Metro Vancouver bus.
Scarlett MacPherson, 19, was riding the 95 B-line bus for the first time to Simon Fraser University. At around 2:20 p.m., she said a man boarded the bus and launched into a tirade at the women around him.
MacPherson started recording on her cell phone.
"There was a man screaming vile, racist and sexist comments at almost all the women on the bus," the psychology student said.
"It was really rough, actually."
In the video, the man wears sunglasses, a blue sleeveless shirt and dirty grey shorts. He stands in the middle of the bus as he yells at the women around him, making lewd references to their bodies and racist remarks about people of Asian descent.
At one point, he looks over his sunglasses toward the camera. He tells MacPherson he doesn't like her eyes and calls her fat. He tells her to have sex with a woman sitting nearby.
'Worried for my own safety'
The women on the bus largely tried to ignore the man, but it was clear some were afraid of him and several women got off the bus, MacPherson said.
"I wanted to get between him and the other women but I was also worried for my own safety," she said.
Watch what it sounded and looked like for the women on the bus
Eventually, the man got off the bus and MacPherson checked in with the other women to make sure they were OK. She says the bus driver saw what was happening but was "apathetic" about it and did nothing to defuse the situation.
MacPherson reported the incident to the police.
On Friday, Burnaby RCMP confirmed the man was arrested.
Police say they received a complaint on Thursday at 4 p.m. that a man had "racially abused" a member of the public and then assaulted them in the area of Parker Street and Alpha Avenue.
The man was found in the 4400 block of Hastings Street. When police arrived, staff members from a nearby liquor store told them the man had just stolen alcohol from the store.
At 6 p.m., they received the complaint about the bus incident. RCMP say the suspect in all three incidents is the same man.
Raul Miguel Rubio-Alabau, 45, has been charged with one count each of assault, mischief, theft under $5,000 and uttering threats.
MacPherson, who just moved to Vancouver from the Sunshine Coast for school, said no one should have to worry about being verbally attacked in public.
"People need to be taught that this kind of behaviour isn't OK. Not in public and not in private and not toward women, not toward men, not toward anybody," she said.
"It was just vile.'
