Vancouver police fatally shot a knife-wielding man after they say attempts to subdue him were unsuccessful.
Officers responded to the First United Church in the city's Downtown Eastside shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday after receiving reports that a man outside was stabbing people.
Witnesses told CTV News there was an argument between three men and a woman but it escalated when one man pulled a knife. He then allegedly started slashing people with the weapon.
Sgt. Randy Fincham said officers found the suspect holding a knife on Gore Street, just outside of the church.
Officers tried to take the man into custody, and fired rounds from a beanbag shotgun in an attempt to subdue him, Fincham added.
But it was only after the suspect apparently became violent to a nearby woman that they opened fire.
"The suspect turned his attention to a woman who was standing nearby and he began to stab her," Fincham said in a statement issued to media. "Police shot the man."
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses said three people near the church were cut during the melee: One stabbed in the head and one in the chest.
B.C. Ambulance confirms three patients were transported to hospital in critical condition. Police said the men were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, but the woman remains in critical condition.
Kellie Kilpatrick of the Independent Investigations Office says its investigators have been dispatched to the scene, calling it a “critical incident.”
Vancouver's Major Crime Section has also been called out.
Names of the victims have not been released.
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