Watch (above): The cell phone video shot by Joe Tobias in the moments after the incident
A witness of a police involved shooting in Vancouver is questioning whether officers needed to use force at all.
Joe Tobias, a Coast Mountain bus driver, captured a cell phone video just moments after a 51-year-old man was shot by police at 41st Ave. and Knight St. Saturday night.
The man has now been identified as Phuong Na (Tony) Du of Vancouver.
Tobias had spoken to Du in the minutes before the shooting and asked if he needed help.
He says Du looked agitated, and was waving a two-by-four around.
Eventually a police cruiser showed up and Tobias noticed police coming toward the man.
According to a statement from the Vancouver Police Dept., Du 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.
“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.”
Tobias managed to videotape most of what happened after the shooting.
“I was shaken,” he says. “I am still a little bit shaken.”
Tobias says he wants to know whether police tried talking to the victim.
“I told the officer, I did not question what they did, I just said it did not have to go this way. It is so unfortunate that this gentleman could not have been dealt with in some other way.”
The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) is now investigating the case.
Kelly Kilpatrick with the IIO told Global News they have completed the notification of next of kin.
She says they are now looking for more witnesses.
“It is a very busy intersection, we know there were people in the area,” she says. “Even if you feel the information is not relevant, let us determine that, we want to speak with you.”
The investigators will spend much of the day today interviewing witnesses in the area and looking for surveillance video.
With files from Justin McElroy
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