Updated: Mon Jan. 26 2009 19:18:38

ctvbc.ca

The Vancouver Police Department is recommending charges against two Lower Mainland police officers in connection with an alleged assault on a newspaper deliveryman in downtown Vancouver last week.

A rookie officer from West Vancouver Police Department may be charged with robbery, and a 38-year-old New Westminster police officer was recommended to be charged with assault and possession of stolen property.

A third officer who was with the pair, a 28-year-old from the Delta Police Department, has not been charged.

The names of the two officers would not be released until charges were laid.

The New Westminster Police department said Wednesday afternoon that their officer continues to be suspended with pay. The other two officers had been placed on desk duties.

Firoz "Phil" Khan, a 47-year-old deliveryman from Surrey, was dropping off newspapers to pay boxes and local hotels in the 600-block of Burrard Street in the early hours of Wednesday, Jan. 21, when he was allegedly kicked and beaten by three men.

Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu said six investigators from his department spent the weekend interviewing nine witnesses. They also interviewed Khan at length.

Chu said more investigators than usual were put on the case, and he took the unusual step of meeting with them while the investigation was ongoing.

Hate crime charges are not being pursued, said Chu.

He added that the Delta officer may have been trying to stop the attack.

The attack took place in the presence of a taxi driver who took two of the officers from the Roxy nightclub to the location near the Hyatt Hotel, and two City of Vancouver employees, Meatr Chima and Phil Pilon.

Chima and Pilon say the attack was so brutal they actually feared for the victim's life, not to mention their own.

"I wanted to jump in and get the one guy who was doing the punching off of the victim," said Pilon.

"Justice probably won't be served, I don't think so," said Chima.

"If it was a guy like me who did that to that guy there would be justice served, but against those police officers I doubt it. I think these police officers should look at themselves in the mirror and think of what they've done. I mean this is ridiculous."

Speaking from his Surrey home on Friday, Khan says one of the only reasons he's alive is because the two city workers stopped to help.

He said he had suffered serious injuries to his head and internal injuries after the attack. He also lost a filling and chipped a tooth.

"Thank God there was a lot of city workers that I know that clean the streets in downtown Vancouver," he said.

He fears what would happen if it didn't happen on city streets.

"Just imagine this thing happened on a back lane. I would have been dead and buried."

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Leah Hendry.