Samuel Opoku, 23, has been arrested for the alleged assault of five different people with buckets of liquid feces.
Opoku has been charged with five counts of assault with a weapon, and five more counts of mischief interference with property. Near midnight on Monday, Oppoku allegedly dumped one of the buckets on a woman just outside the University of Toronto.
Police Constable David Hopkinson was disgusted. “A young girl had a bucket of waste, feces, dumped on her,” he told the Toronto Star. “I don’t know what to say, I’m at a loss, this is absolutely disgusting.” Similar incidents took place at U of T, as well as York University.
One attack occurred in the John P. Robarts Library on Monday, when a man entered and poured a bucket of waste on two people seated at a table, before fleeing the scene. “As a public university we work to make the resources of our libraries as open as possible,” Yanni Dagonas, acting chief spokesperson for York University, said. “What happened was shocking and assistance was provided to those affected.”
And while all of the victims of the attacks have been of Asian descent, Police Spokesman Victor Kwong said the crimes are not believed to have been racially motivated. “We don’t know if that’s the connection, because we have different parts of Asia in there,” Kwong said. “Some (of the victims) were from the west side, some from the east side — so it’s not like they were all Chinese, per se.”
Mostly, though, authorities are simply dumbfounded. “It’s so bizarre,” Constable Allyson Douglas-Cook said. “You can imagine the questions, and we’re just as confused as everyone — and just as determined to try to put an end to this. Because it’s just absolutely horrible and disgusting and confusing.”
Opoku has been ordered to remain in custody until Dec. 3 when a bail hearing has been set.