Police looking for three suspects in October Chinatown statue vandalism

Police are looking to identify three suspects in October Chinatown vandalism. (Ottawa Police Service)

The Ottawa Police Service is looking to identify three suspects who broke two statues in Chinatown on Oct. 8.

Police say three suspects damaged two statues in the 700 block of Somerset Street W between the hours of 10 and 11 p.m. The suspects allegedly kicked both statues and caused them to break.

The Chinatown BIA posted surveillance video on social media showing individuals pushing and kicking down two yellow deer statues. The video was timestamped at 10:25 p.m.

The suspects then left the area on foot.

Chinatown BIA executive director Yukang Li said in October that this kind of vandalism has been an ongoing problem.

"My heart was broken when I first saw it. This is a repeated vandalism that has been happening in Chinatown," said Li.

"The whole project was completed in March and since then we have been seeing damages to these selfie-stations which was not easy to bring into Chinatown."

Suspect one is described as a dark-skinned male with medium-sized build. He was wearing a red Nike hooded sweatshirt and light jeans.

The second suspect is described as a white male, medium build with short brown hair. He was last seen wearing a black jacket, black pants and a black Chicago White Sox cap.

There is no description for the third suspect.

Over the summer, people were caught on camera stealing two dinosaur statues from Chinatown and later returning them in the middle of the night. It was just one case of many, as other statues in the neighbourhood had been damaged.

The artwork was installed in February and cost $200,000, BIA officials said in July. It was funded through government grants as part of a revitalization effort.

There are at least eight groups of statues placed along Somerset Street between Bronson Avenue and Preston Street. They range from iconic Chinese pandas to popular characters drawing from Asian culture.

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Ted Raymond