EDMONTON -- Police say several vehicles and a business had their windows smashed in an apparent overnight vandalism spree.
The vandalism occurred in the area of 119 Street and 127 Avenue early Tuesday.
Investigators are searching for a suspect and say they'll release CCTV footage later in the day in an attempt to track down the culprit.
In a news conference Edmonton Police Service Staff Sgt. Bill Clark said that a man was seen roaming the area, carrying what’s believed to be a baseball bat, just after 5 a.m.
One witness told police that the man was using the bat to smash out windows.
“I know how these people feel,” said Clark. “We want to catch this guy and charge him and then the courts can deal with him.”
Maya Eltawil received a phone call from police around 7 a.m. letting her know the front windows of her furniture store had been broken.
“We’re very devastated,” Eltawil told CTV News Edmonton.
“We recently opened just about a few months ago. We’re trying to help ourselves and Edmontonians through these tough economic situations. And then this is what we see happening today.”
Eltawil said nothing was taken from the store during the incident and that there was no damage inside, but estimates about $6,000 in damage was done to her windows.
“We opened this as a family business,” Eltawil said. “It does hurt a lot. Especially during this tough situation with COVID and everything that’s going on.”
Police describe the suspect as a male in his late teens to early 20s, 5’9” to 6’0” tall and was said to be wearing a dark hoodie at the time of the incident.
It's the latest of several vandalism incidents to occur in Edmonton this summer.
Earlier this month, vandals smashed windows and doors and spraypainted a flag at the Ethiopian-Canadian Community Association.
In July, a 22-year-old was charged for a series of tire slashings in west Edmonton.
