Four-hour standoff on Kingsway ends with arrest of man wanted on mental health warrant

A 911 report of a man with a large knife threatening pedestrians on Kingsway near Miller Street on November 11 ended hours later with a surrender inside a residential building and a trip to hospital, not a injury count.

Vancouver Police said the call came in at about 1:20 p.m. The caller described a man carrying a large knife and watched him walk into a nearby residential building. For people who live and work along that stretch of Kingsway, it meant an afternoon and early evening with a police operation close by, though police said no one was hurt.

Officers went through CCTV footage from the building, which they said confirmed who the man was. The video showed a large knife on his left hip as he went back to his suite. Police also learned he was wanted on an outstanding mental health warrant.

That gave officers grounds to arrest him for possessing a dangerous weapon and on the warrant itself, the VPD said, pointing to immediate safety concerns for both the man and the public.

Negotiators then spent about four hours trying to coax him out of the suite peacefully. Shortly before 7 p.m., after the Emergency Response Team stepped in with a tactical intervention, he left the suite and gave himself up. Police said he was arrested without incident and transported to hospital, where he was to be assessed under the warrant.

Constable Darren Wong said police aim to resolve situations peacefully while keeping the community safe. In this case, he said, no one was injured, and the man was taken into custody so he could receive medical care.