A Surrey man was arrested early Thursday morning after Vancouver police received several calls about a man walking along a downtown street threatening people with a knife.
It was just after 7 a.m. when the 911 calls started coming in, said media relations officer Sgt. Jason Robillard, about a man walking in the street and threatening people with a knife.
File photo
Officers quickly located the man, a 19 year old from Surrey, in the area of Hastings and Seymour. The man, who Robillard said police believe was under the influence of drugs, refused to cooperate with police and officers hit him with several rounds from a bean bag gun and Taser before taking him into custody.
“They were able to take the man into custody after deploying the bean bag and Taser and he was taken to hospital for an assessment,” Robillard said.
In addition to check for possible injuries sustained from multiple rounds from the bean bag gun and Taser, Robillard said the man was also taken to hospital because officers believed he was under the influence of drugs.
“That appears to be a contributing factor in this case here,” he said, adding that the suspect’s level of intoxication was also a factor in the officers having to deploy the bean bag gun and Taser more than once.
“[That] is a good indication of the drug impairment because generally… an average person being struck with these less lethal options once is enough to get you to comply but in this case it took several, which is an indication of the level of impairment he was under
Robillard said the man is expected to be released from hospital and could be facing charges of assault and possession of a weapon.
“There was a report of a female that was injured but very minor injuries,” Robillard said. “She declined an ambulance and declined any heath care at the scene and left the scene without being treated so it was very minor. Other than that there was no other injuries reported.”
