Police in Vancouver said a busy Halloween weekend was marked by a pair of unrelated stabbing incidents that left five people hurt in the early hours of Sunday morning (Oct. 30).
According to the Vancouver Police Department, the two incidents took place within about an hour of each other at two separate locations in the city, involving victims and suspects known to each other.
Amidst the usual Halloween revelry and chaos, VPD officers responded to a triple stabbing at a bar near Oak Street and West Broadway around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, after a confrontation between two groups left three men seriously injured.
The victims, all men in their 20s from White Rock, were in the city for a birthday celebration. One was treated at hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, but two others were more seriously hurt and remain hospitalized. The suspects fled.
Not long after, the VPD says officers patrolling downtown intervened in a large fight involving two groups of people on Granville Street. Two men in their 20s suffered stab wounds to the face, hands, and torso, and required hospitalization. The suspects have not been identified.
- Update: On November 17, 2023, the VPD released surveillance footage stills of two male suspects in the hopes the public can help investigators identify and locate them.
“At this stage in the investigations, we believe these stabbings occurred in two separate and unrelated incidents,” says Sergeant Steve Addison in a VPD media release issued Sunday afternoon. “We believe these crimes were targeted, and resulted from prior confrontations between the victims and the suspects.”
A busy weekend in Vancouver for the police
“The weekend before Halloween is always one of the busiest for our officers, and these major incidents stretched our resources thin during a critical time,” adds Addison in the statement.
VPD officers were also deployed throughout the weekend for large protests and events, including at the PNE, at Rogers Arena, and on the Lions Gate Bridge.
However, the VPD also notes that the two stabbings under investigation were not the only noteworthy incidents to which officers were dispatched early Saturday and into the evening.
The VPD outlines the following three incidents:
- A man in his 20s was slashed in the face during an altercation with an unknown group of people near Howe and Nelson Streets early Saturday morning. The victim, who was visiting the Granville Entertainment District from Surrey, had attempted to intervene in a dispute between two strangers when he was injured. He was taken to hospital for stitches.
- A witness called the police after hearing someone claim to have a gun during an altercation between two groups at a restaurant near Denman and Davie Street around 5:30 a.m. Saturday. The suspects left in a taxi, but VPD officers responded to the area and located the cab, arresting the suspects and seizing two loaded handguns from a man in his 20s.
- A man in his 20s was walking in Chinatown on Saturday evening when a stranger threatened him with a knife. The victim called the police immediately and the VPD located the suspect, who was attempting to flee on a bike. Unfortunately for the suspect, he was in the wrong bike gear and his chain fell off, allowing officers to apprehend him before he could ride away. The man was taken to jail, and charges have been recommended.
