MAN IN KNIFE ATTACK SHOT DEAD BY POLICE
Three stabbed in Downtown Eastside; one woman in critical condition.
“The guy dropped his knife, picked it up and ran down the street and stabbed someone else. Some girl. Her clothes are on the sidewalk.
A man who stabbed three people in the Downtown Eastside Thursday is dead after being shot by police.
Officers were called to the First United Church at East Hastings Street and Gore Avenue at about 5 p.m. after reports that a man was stabbing people, police say.
One victim — a woman police say did not know her attacker — was in critical condition Friday night.
Witnesses at the scene said an argument between a group of men escalated late in the afternoon when one man pulled out a knife.
Daniel Gorowski said he had just gone outside for a smoke near the First United Church when he saw a group of men walking down the sidewalk.
Gorowski said they appeared to be friends, but were arguing. At one point, one of the men turned around to face the others and pulled out a knife.
“He went crazy and started stabbing people,” said Gorowski, who was shaking after the ordeal.
The man with the knife stabbed one person from the group in the head while they were in the 300block of East Hastings Street, then he slashed him on the side of his body, Gorowski said.
The man also stabbed another man in the shoulder, he said.
Gorowski then fled to the north side of the street, fearing he would be attacked next.
“It was pretty scary,” said Gorowski, who recently moved to the area from Houston, Texas.
From the north side of the street, he called 911 as he watched the man attack one more person — a woman who was not part of the group.
Another witness, Robert Kerr, told The Sun that the original altercation began with a disagreement about a bicycle. He said when officers arrived on the scene they tried to isolate the man with the knife.
Officers fired multiple shots with a beanbag shotgun at the man in an attempt to control him, according to Vancouver Police Department spokesman Randy Fincham.
But the man then turned to a woman who was standing nearby and started to stab her.
It was then that police opened fire, Fincham said in a news release.
Mike Kelly saw the shooting and said police hit the attacker with the bean bags a few times.
“The guy dropped his knife, picked it up and ran down the street and stabbed someone else. Some girl. Her clothes are on the sidewalk,” he said.
A pair of men were treated at the church for non life-threatening injuries and the woman was taken to hospital in critical condition, Fincham said.
John Patlida said he was walking in the area about 15 minutes before the incident. He saw a trio of men talking in raised voices. He knew two of the men from Vancouver’s Somali community, he said, adding they were residents at First United Church. But Patlida said he didn’t know the third man.
Patlida had gone into a pub after seeing the men, then came back out a short time later when he heard shots fired.
Heather Forbes, a spokeswoman from First United Church who witnessed the beginning of the attack, was visibly shaken.
“There’s been nothing like this (in this area) before,” she said. “We’re just incredibly sad.”
Police taped off Gore Avenue between East Hastings and East Pender streets to preserve the scene and brought in a mobile command vehicle.
Investigators from the Independent Investigations Office arrived at the scene of the shooting shortly after it happened.
“The IIO investigation will focus on the actions of the police officers,” said Kellie Kilpatrick, an IIO spokeswoman.
She said the IIO team includes a team director, investigators, a forensics specialist and a manager.
The Vancouver Sun recently compiled a list of fatal police shootings using coroner’s reports, newspaper archives and IIO press releases.
The newspaper tallied 41 people killed in police shootings in this province since 2004, an average of just under four a year. Of those, we conservatively estimate 60 per cent of the deceased were going through a mental health crisis.
(The list does not include people who died after being Tasered by police, or those who died in police custody of other means.)
Some years, such as 2004, 2009 and 2014, had more fatal shootings than average, while other years, such as 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2013, had fewer.
MIKE KELLY WITNESS