WATCH: Witnesses who saw police shoot and kill a 51-year-old man in East Vancouver on Saturday are wondering if officers did all they could. The suspect was wandering the streets waving a two-by-four before the deadly shooting. Julia Foy reports.
The Independent Investigations Office is looking into the death of a 51-year-old man who was shot by police in East Vancouver Saturday night. He has now been identified as Vancouver resident Phuong Na (Tony) Du.
The shooting happened around 5 p.m. near E. 41st and Knight St. after police received a report of a man waving a two-by-four. Witnesses say the man was clearly agitated.
According to a statement from the Vancouver Police Dept., the man confronted officers who tried to disarm him using non-lethal force. The victim was eventually shot and sent to hospital, but did not survive.
No officers were injured.
Now that the IIO is heading up the case, Vancouver police are limited in what they can say. They are not commenting on what efforts were made to negotiate with the victim before lethal force was used.
“The decision to use force that is potentially deadly is never an easy decision on our officers,” said VPD spokesman Brian Montague. “Less lethal rounds were used and our officers have to make very split-second decisions, decisions that are made under very stressful circumstances sometimes.”
The incident is the fourth police-involved shooting in the past seven weeks under investigation by the IIO.
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