A 48-year-old man has been charged in a machete attack that sent four people to the hospital with serious injuries on Saturday night.
Ibrahim Abdela Bakhit faces one count each of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
Bakhit is accused of setting his suite on fire in a rooming house near Granville and Smithe streets, then stabbing four people inside the building.
They suffered “serious, life-altering injuries,” Vancouver police said in a Monday news release.
“When VPD officers arrived at the scene, they were confronted by the suspect who was still armed with the weapon,” police said in the statement. “Shots were then fired by police and the suspect was injured.”
Bakhit remains in custody until his next court appearance.
In a Sunday interview, one of the victims said he heard “a pop and an explosion” on Saturday night in the building he shared with the suspect.
“I went into the hallway and it smelled like gasoline,” Cecil Cochrane told Global News on Sunday.
“I was locking my door when he hit me in the head from behind and I went down to one knee. He hit me again with the machete and then I grabbed it…. We started fighting, rolling around on the ground.”
Cochrane said the man tried to stab him in the throat, and he attempted to keep the weapon away. Police arrived halfway through the fight, he added.
“Cops yelled at him to let go of the knife, he sat up and went towards the police and that’s when the cops shot him twice. When the shots were fired, I dove into an office.”
Cochrane said he was “sore and grateful to be alive” after receiving several slashes to his head, back and neck. He wore a neck brace and had at least 20 staples on the back of his head at the time of the interview.
Both the Vancouver Police Department’s major crime sections and the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. are investigating the attack.
With files from Darrian Matassa-Fung