The man killed in a pair of violent stranger attacks in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday has been identified as an unhoused person who had lived in the city for years.
Francis David Laporte was killed near the Queen Elizabeth Theatre around 7:45 a.m., just minutes after the same attacker allegedly severed a 56-year-old man’s hand a few blocks away.
Police have since confirmed doctors were able to reattach the victim’s hand, but say he will likely have lasting physical and psychological trauma.
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer said about 90 officers responded to the horrific attacks.
“They applied the tourniquets to that person’s arm and helped to save their life,” Palmer said Friday. “Calming the situation down, gathering witnesses, gathering evidence and also searching for that suspect.”
Brendan Colin McBride, 34, of White Rock has since been charged with murder and aggravated assault in the attacks. He was on probation at the time, related to an assault conviction in White Rock, and his record includes a previous guilty plea for assault causing bodily harm.
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Palmer had previously described him as “a very troubled man who has a lengthy history of mental health-related incidents which have resulted in more than 60 documented contacts with police throughout Metro Vancouver.”
The attacks have reignited the debate in B.C. about public safety and treatment for people with severe mental health conditions, including the prospect of involuntary care for people with the potential for violence.
To that end, the province has faced calls to reopen Riverview, the long-shuttered psychiatric hospital in Coquitlam.
Coast Mental Health CEO Kier Macdonald said he hoped the incident sparked an honest discussion about how to better resource mental health services, but warned about demonizing people with mental health issues as a result.
“The reality is most people with mental illness are not violent and are more frequently victims of violence themselves,” he said.
Macdonald said Riverview was closed for a reason as the province moved away from a model of institutionalizing people with mental illness, but that the necessary and promised community-based care needed to replace it was never implemented.
He said secure facilities to care for potentially dangerous people are necessary, but that early diagnosis and early access to well-funded supports will do more to prevent violent incidents from happening.
“It’s these events where people aren’t accessing care, aren’t getting the treatment they need, that are often escalating and ending up in violent situations,” he said.
B.C. Premier David Eby, meanwhile, said he was open to the prospect of more involuntary care for people with serious mental health issues, but that any such model must be “dignified and humane” and avoid “warehousing people.”
Eby said the province was working with chief scientific adviser for psychiatry Dr. Daniel Vigo on a system of care to address both community safety concerns and the needs of people in mental distress, promising an update next week.
McBride, meanwhile, remains in custody and is due back on court on Sept. 18.
Anyone who has information and has yet to speak to police is asked to call homicide investigators at 604-717-2500.
— with files from the Canadian Press
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