VANCOUVER — A man dressed in a dark green hunting jacket and carrying a rifle was shot dead after stabbing an employee and a police officer at a Canadian Tire store in East Vancouver on Thursday.
The violent scene began to unfold around 3 p.m. near the gun counter at the Canadian Tire at 2830 Bentall St., where Tamara Jones and her nine-year-old son Atlin were shopping for a rake.
“We were on our way to the till when we heard yelling, ‘He’s got a gun.’ I didn’t know if it was real, if it was a prank. Then someone yelled ‘Drop to the floor,’ ” Jones said.
“I was completely freaked out. All I wanted to do was get my son out of there. It was the scariest feeling. We just ran.”
Staff later told Jones they believed the man broke into a display case and stole a rifle. An employee was stabbed during the robbery, said Brian Montague, a Vancouver police spokesman.
By the time the man walked out of the store, police had arrived.
In the ensuing confrontation, one Vancouver police officer was stabbed repeatedly and another opened fire, killing the man. Witnesses said the man was a white male in his mid-40s with a tall, stocky build — an agitated, muscular, “football player-type,” as Jones put it.
Katarina Mitchell recounted what she saw from the parking lot.
“A police car pulled up and they came out carrying these big rifles. (Then) out comes this guy from Canadian Tire,” she said. It was then that the man sprayed officers with an unknown substance.
“I don’t know if it was pepper spray or spray paint. He goes down, the first cop, and the second cop was behind him and tackled him to the ground, and they were fighting,” Mitchell said.
But the officer could not hold the man down, recalled Jones, who by that time was also outside of the store. There were conflicting descriptions as to what happened next in the chaotic battle, but a few details were clear in the minds of witnesses. There was the sight of an officer grabbing his stomach, bending over and falling backward, the “pop, pop, pop” of gunfire, and in the end, the suspect lying on the ground, motionless.
“He came out, got tackled, on the ground and dead. All within five minutes,” Mitchell said.
As Jones later reflected: “He would not relent. And they shot him, because he wasn’t going to stand down.”
Both the injured officer and employee were taken to hospital in stable condition.
Dozens of police cars from Vancouver police and from Burnaby RCMP, as well as other emergency vehicles, lined up around the complex. Staff Sgt.-Major John Buis, a Burnaby RCMP spokesman, said officers from his jurisdiction were called in to support their Vancouver counterparts.
The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. issued a statement that it had been notified of the shooting and investigators had been sent to gather evidence, and interview civilian and uniformed witnesses. The office investigates all police-related incidents that result in serious harm or death to determine if an officer committed an offence.
Investigators have asked any witnesses to call the Independent Investigations Office at 1-855-446-8477.
The identity of the man killed by police was not released. That task is the responsibility of the B.C. Coroners Service.
In the confusion of the violence, there were rumours that a second gunman was in the store and may have had a hostage. Montague said officers searched the store for additional suspects and victims, but they appeared to have found none.
