A White Rock man who was arrested after two knife attacks in Vancouver's downtown core Wednesday morning (Sept. 4) was on probation for a 2023 assault and had more than 60 previous police interactions.
The "unprovoked stranger attacks" left one man dead and another with life-altering injuries.
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Vancouver Police Chief Const. Adam Palmer said the suspect, a 34-year-old White Rock resident, appears to be "very troubled" and police are looking into whether mental health was a factor in this morning's "horrific" attacks. Investigators are treating the incidents as unprovoked stranger attacks, VPD said.
VPD officers responded at 7:38 a.m. Wednesday to reports of a man who had been attacked near Cathedral Square, at Richards Street and Dunsmuir. Officers found a man, 56, who had been attacked with a knife, was bleeding from the head, and had suffered a severed hand. The man was taken to hospital for emergency treatment and is expected to survive.
Just eight minutes later, at 7:46 a.m., VPD officers were called to West Georgia and Hamilton Street after a second man was attacked. Despite efforts to save his life, the man died at the scene. The victim鈥檚 identity and age have not yet been confirmed, but Palmer said at the press conference he was aged about 70, and police are in the process of identifying him.
While investigators from VPD鈥檚 Major Crime Section and Forensic Identification Unit began collecting evidence from the two crime scenes, VPD patrol officers obtained images of the suspect, confirmed the two incidents were linked, and began searching for him. Shortly after 9 a.m., officers located the suspect on Habitat Island, near the Olympic Village, after responding to reports that a man behaving erratically had approached a stranger and began yelling at him.
Palmer added the man, who had a history of assaulting police and social workers, was tracked down with the help of a drone and arrested at Habitat Island, near the Olympic Village.
The suspect is currently at the Vancouver Jail, police said.
Palmer, speaking at a news conference with Mayor Ken Sim, says he doesn't believe the suspect was breaching his "light" probation conditions by being in Vancouver.
He said police believed the early morning attacks were "completely random."
Witnesses, or anyone with information who had not yet come forward, are asked to call Vancouver Police Homicide at 604-717-2500.
More to come.
鈥� with files from Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press
