A police officer is silhouetted while talking on a phone at a crime scene outside the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, on Sept. 4. Vancouver police say a man has been arrested in connection with two serious incidents that happened between 7:30 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. in the downtown area and that the investigation is ongoing.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The criminal justice system was too lenient with a man accused of knifing an elderly stranger to death and severing the hand of another downtown bystander, Vancouver’s police chief says, noting the suspect has mental-health problems and has had more than 60 interactions with police across the region.
Chief Adam Palmer told reporters at a news conference Wednesday the 34-year-old suspect was on unspecified “quite light” probation conditions after a 2023 assault in suburban White Rock, 45 minutes south of Vancouver.
The suspect didn’t appear to be in violation of his probation by travelling to Vancouver, but he also has had “some serious charges” stayed against him and a history of assaulting police and health care workers, Chief Palmer said. He described the suspect as “very troubled,” and said he was arrested about an hour after the morning attacks. The chief did not name the suspect because the Crown had not yet approved charges.
Concerns have been growing in cities across the country about public disorder, prompting calls for federal and provincial politicians to do something about repeat violent offenders and a mental-health crisis exacerbated by a toxic drug supply.
Shortly after 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, officers were called to a small downtown Vancouver square after reports that a man had been attacked with a knife. Officers located a 56-year-old man bleeding from the head and with one hand severed. The victim and his hand were taken to hospital and he is expected to survive, Chief Palmer said.
Eight minutes later, police responded two blocks away at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre where a second man was attacked. He died at the scene. Police believe he was about 70 years old, but as of Wednesday afternoon, he had not been identified.
Just over an hour after the attacks, a man walking his dog at a park in the nearby Olympic Village neighbourhood noticed the suspect acting erratically and called police. Chief Palmer said the Emergency Response Team was brought in and, with the help of a drone, found and arrested the suspect near a popular seaside haunt known by locals as “Beer Island.”
Shawn Miller had just dropped his children off at school when he witnessed the arrest.
“Then I saw members of the ERT with guns drawn, and dogs barking, run on to the island and then start yelling at the suspect to freeze and stay down,” he told The Globe and Mail after cellphone video he shot and posted on social media went viral.
Several hours after the attacks, officers had still cordoned off one side of the theatre complex, with a tent covering evidence. Police tape blocked off the north entrance to Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, where blood remained spattered on several of the Catholic church’s granite steps.
Chief Palmer acknowledged most people suffering from mental health problems will never have any interactions with police, but he warned Wednesday a small fraction present an extreme danger to the public and need to be kept in institutions.
“This person, in my estimation, is going to fall into that category,” he said, as Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim stood beside him at the press conference.
Vancouver Police chief Adam Palmer says the city is not unsafe, but adds there are too many people with mental health and addiction issues, or with a criminal history on the street. He was speaking at a news conference after a man was arrested for a pair of “unprovoked stranger attacks” that left one man dead and another with a severed hand in downtown Vancouver on Sept. 4.
The Canadian Press
Since Mr. Sim was elected in October, 2022, Chief Palmer said his department has hired more officers and has focused on policing high-risk and chronic violent offenders. But this suspect was not one of 80 Vancouver-based repeat violent offenders being monitored in the city by special teams of Crown prosecutors, officers in his department and probation officers, Chief Palmer said. The provincial government created the teams last year as part of its response to public outcry over the justice system’s high-profile struggles with this type of offender.
Premier David Eby is facing a provincial election next month and public safety is expected to be one of the key issues.
In an investigation published last year, The Globe and Mail found there is no reliable tally of how many people across British Columbia are responsible for repeated acts of random violence, but B.C. mayors estimated there are likely a couple hundred or more.
In 2022, B.C.’s attorney-general issued a rare directive to Crown prosecutors aimed at increasing the number of serious offenders who are held in pretrial detention without bail. However, data released by the province last year showed the new rules were not having a significant impact in persuading judges to agree to detention.
The NDP government has repeatedly called on the federal government to make changes to criminal law to ensure repeat offenders can more easily be held in custody and to provide provinces with more resources to address the mental-health crisis.
This past January, the federal Liberal government enacted a bill aimed at making it more difficult for some repeat violent offenders to be granted bail.
The BC Conservatives seized on the Vancouver attacks Wednesday, and blamed the NDP government’s harm-reduction policies. Police have not said whether the suspect had addictions issues.
“The BC NDP has prioritized the rights of criminals over the safety of our citizens, and it’s the people of British Columbia who are paying the price,” said Conservative Leader John Rustad.
Mr. Eby said at an unrelated event that the attacks were “a disheartening moment.”
“We make so much progress on driving down stranger attacks and reducing violent offences in our province and then something like this happens and it shakes people’s confidence again in a really profound way,” he said.
Mr. Sim said the situation is horrifying and incredibly frustrating because other levels of government – particularly the federal government – have not responded with more money for mental health.
“Every time we come up on the stage and we talk about how we react, it’s of zero comfort to the victims and their friends,” Mr. Sim said. “We cannot solve this alone. We face gaps in our public safety.”
Despite the charged politics around such high-profile attacks, Chief Palmer rattled off police statistics showing public safety has improved and reiterated that his city “is not dying.”
“Vancouver is not unsafe, that’s all hyperbole and it’s not actually factual,” he said. “In any big city in Canada, or North America, there will be shootings and stabbings and acts of violence and this will not be the last one.”
With a report from The Canadian Press
Editor’s note: A previous version incorrectly stated the suspect had some 60 charges. This article has been updated to reflect that the suspect has had more than 60 documented contacts with police.