A man was arrested along Vancouver’s seawall on Tuesday and is facing criminal charges after what police describe as a “violent commercial robbery” near Granville Island.
It took about 90 minutes and multiple crisis negotiators to eventually take him into custody, police said. He was also shot with a less-lethal ARWEN gun before eventually being handcuffed.
“The armed suspect threatened to jump from the seawall into False Creek,” reads a news release from the Vancouver Police Department.
Video shot by Global News shows the man on the outside of a fence on the seawall near the Granville Bridge, speaking with a handful police officers.
He eventually climbs over the fence with his arms out as two officers point their weapons at him.
He eventually turns his back to them as he continues to speak. When he begins to turn around and face them, an officer fires the ARWEN gun and the suspect drops to the ground.
Police said the incident began just before 10:30 a.m., when they responded to calls that a man was armed with bear spray and a samurai sword at a business near West 3rd Avenue and Fir Street.
The suspect fled, but officers tracked him on the ground and in the water to the seawall.
No further information on charges, or a possible investigation from B.C.’s civilian-led police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office of BC, was available Tuesday afternoon.