WATCH ABOVE: Residents of a downtown Vancouver hotel are demanding the city do something to make their home safer. That’s after two men were killed in their building late last night. John Hua reports.
Vancouver police are investigating a deadly double stabbing on the Downtown Eastside.
Shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, police responded to a stabbing at West Hotel on Carrall St. near E. Pender.
Two men were found inside the hotel with stab wounds. A 24-year-old man died at the scene while a 37-year-old man was rushed to hospital where he later died. The VPD’s Major Crime Section and Forensic Identification Unit are investigating.
The motive for the double stabbing is unknown, according to VPD Sgt. Randy Fincham, who said a suspect has not been identified.
Both victims are known to police.
Tenants tell Global News another attack occurred in the hotel earlier this week. They are critical of the hotel’s property management company, Community Builders Group, claiming that since they took over three months ago no one is manning the front door, allowing problems from the street to spill into the hotel.
Tenants say they approached the Community Builders Group to make changes, but their requests have been ignored, leaving them to patrol the hotel on their own.
Julie Roberts, president of Community Builders Group, says both victims in Saturday’s attack were not residents of the hotel. She said the staff member on duty at the time of the incident was not at the front desk because she “was doing a walk-through of the building to check for security.”
Roberts says they have only been managing the hotel for three months and acknowledge that more needs to be done to make the hotel more secure.
“We’ve tried to respond and make the building safer for people to live as well as fix things,” she says. “Obviously in this case more needs to be done. We are very, very saddened that this happened and we’re going to be stepping up with security while we meet with all the parties involved to try to see what solution we can come up with in the long term.”
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the VPD Homicide Unit at 604-717-2500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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