Vancouver police are investigating a violent incident in the downtown area on Wednesday that ended with officers fatally shooting a suspect.
Mayor Ken Sim said that despite calls for change, senior levels of government have done nothing to help people feel safe.
“We come here all the time and we saw, we look at the data that Vancouver is still a very safe city but incidents like this just really hit us to our core and it keeps people on edge,” he said.
Video of the incident on Wednesday shows police shooting a man who had allegedly stabbed one person and wounded another.
Police said they were responding to a report of a man who had stolen alcohol from the Original Joe’s restaurant and was armed with a knife.
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Officers located the man at the 7-Eleven at Robson and Hamilton where the incident happened.
Despite life-saving efforts, the suspect died in hospital.
The two victims’ injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
The Independent Investigations Office, which investigates police-involved incidents, confirmed officers were called to the scene on Wednesday.
Vancouver police said they are starting to figure out what happened.
“We don’t have all the answers, and we’re going to trust that through the courses of the investigation, not only the Vancouver Police investigation but the independent investigation that’s going to be done by the Independent Investigations office, we’ll trust that those processes will find all the answers that we’re looking for,” Sgt. Steve Addison with the Vancouver police said.
He added that Wednesday was a difficult day for everyone in the city, whether they were directly affected or saw video of the incident.
“Very traumatic day,” Addison said. “Incidents like this are very troubling. Disturbing. And we absolutely understand that when incidents like this occur, they do cause people to feel less safe in their community.”
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