VANCOUVER — Witnesses have described a chaotic scene leading up to a downtown Vancouver stabbing before the suspect was fatally shot by police in a convenience store.
Witnesses say a man stole liquor and a knife from a restaurant then used the weapon to attack people in a 7-Eleven store across the street.
“One of the kitchen guys came out, asked if he could help him, and the guy grabbed the knife and asked him if he wanted to die,” said Kylie Noel, who was working at the Original Joe’s restaurant at Robson and Hamilton streets on Wednesday.
Her co-worker then told her to call police.
The Vancouver Police Department said the suspect shot by police died in hospital.
Police initially said on social media that “a number of people” were stabbed in the incident that was called in around 11:30 a.m., but Const. Tania Visintin told a briefing that one person was stabbed in the hand while another person suffered facial injuries.
“We’re still waiting back to hear from medical professionals on the extent of their injuries and how those injuries occurred,” Visintin said.
Both were treated in hospital and their injuries were not believed to be life threatening.
Visintin said VPD will be investigating the stabbing while the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. will be looking into the officers' actions in this case.
The office is called in any time police are involved in a situation that results in death or serious harm.
Video captured by Mainul Islam, a student and part-time food delivery worker, shows police officers pointing their guns over the counter of the 7-Eleven, shouting at someone to “move over,” then firing at least 10 times.
Islam said he had been picking up a food order when he saw a “homeless guy” trying to steal cigarettes behind the counter. He said staff were trying to stop the man.
“And he just brought out his knife from his pocket, and he tried to stab … the guy, but he ran away, and then he went to stab that lady. Maybe he already stabbed that lady in the back, I saw blood, but she was OK.”
He said the police were there within minutes and “just shot this guy.”
Another video shows two people being wheeled away on stretchers, with a firefighter performing chest compressions on one of them.
Noel said that before the shooting, a man came into Original Joe’s and stood by the restaurant’s door, opened a laptop computer and “demanded a glass of water.”
Noel said she refused, and went back to tell kitchen staff that the man was refusing to leave.
She said he had left by the time other workers came out, but Noel then saw him outside with a bottle of alcohol she believed was stolen from the restaurant, which she later confirmed by watching security camera footage.
When Noel returned to the restaurant’s main floor, the man was again behind the bar, and Noel ran back down to tell her colleagues in the kitchen. She said that was when the man grabbed the knife and threatened Noel’s co-worker.
Noel said she ran into a neighbouring hotel lobby and stayed on the phone with police as she described the man.
She said she watched him walk into the 7-Eleven across the street. “Maybe three minutes later the police showed up,” she said.
In Islam’s video of the shooting, a stun gun held by an officer appears to have already been fired, with the wires trailing over the counter inside the convenience store.
“Move over, right now. Move over,” one officer shouts at the unseen suspect before gunfire is heard.
After the shooting, a man can be heard saying, “Are you OK ma’am?” while a woman sobs.
Andrew Cecil works at the Rosedale Hotel near the shooting scene and said he walked over to the 7-Eleven after the man had left Original Joe’s.
“I saw him with his knife,” Cecil said.
Cecil said the man went behind the counter and cornered an employee. A manager tried to “cool it” down while the man was swinging the knife around, Cecil said.
He said police showed up shortly after and deployed a Taser, which “didn’t seem to affect him,” before the shots were fired.
BC Emergency Health Services public information officer Rachelle Bown said in a statement that three ambulances with primary care paramedics, two ambulances with advanced care paramedics and one paramedic supervisor responded to the scene.
The incident took place several blocks away from BC Place Stadium where Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concerts will take place from Dec. 6 to 8.
— With files by Ashley Joannou
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2024.
Nono Shen and Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press