A man who was caught on video unleashing a seemingly unprovoked racist tirade against an elderly man in Markham is being sought by authorities in York Region.
According to police, an elderly Asian man was walking north on Old Kennedy Road, near Steels Avenue, at around 10 a.m. Sunday when a man approached him from behind and proceeded to pass him on the sidewalk.
A driving instructor who happened to be in the area recorded the incident on his dashboard camera.
In the video, the elderly man appears to be walking with a limp.
Once the suspect passes the man on the sidewalk, he quickly turns around and begins hurling racist comments at him. He can be heard in the video calling the man “a monkey.”
Soon after, the suspect notices the driving instructor sitting in his car watching the incident and approaches him asking, “Do you got a problem?”
The driving instructor, who is also Asian, doesn’t respond.
The suspect proceeds to make racist remarks to the motorist, including telling him to “go eat some rice.”
Investigators describe the suspect as a white man who is between 20 and 35 years old, standing between five-foot-seven to five-foot-nine in height with a medium build.
He was last seen wearing a blue baseball hat, sunglasses, black shorts, a dark-coloured T-shirt and carrying a black backpack.
Anyone with new information about the investigation is being asked to call York Regional Police or Crime Stoppers.
