Vancouver's police chief says the suspect in a pair of "unprovoked stranger attacks" in the city's downtown that left one man dead and another with a severed hand was on probation for a 2023 assault and had more than 60 previous police interactions.
Chief Constable Adam Palmer says the suspect, a 34-year-old White Rock man, appears to be "very troubled" and police are looking into whether mental health was a factor in this morning's "horrific" attacks.
He says 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.
Today, a tragic and deeply unsettling incident occurred – a random stranger attack that claimed the life of one person and left another with life-altering injuries. On behalf of all Vancouverites, I offer my heartfelt condolences to the affected families.
— Mayor Ken Sim (@KenSimCity) September 4, 2024
Every single person… pic.twitter.com/dDnQrQ0HM0
Palmer says the 56-year-old victim whose hand was cut off is expected to survive, while police are in the process of identifying the man who was killed near the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and was aged about 70.
The police chief, 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."
