17-year-old arrested with 'cache of loaded guns' in Downtown Eastside room, VPD says

Vancouver police say they arrested a 17-year-old boy and seized "a cache of loaded guns and other dangerous weapons" at an SRO hotel in the Downtown Eastside Saturday.

Police said they were called to the Grand Union, which they described as "a rooming house near Abbott and West Hastings streets," around 3 p.m. for a report that someone had unlawfully entered a room there.

"When officers arrived, they were confronted by a teenager holding a loaded gun," the Vancouver Police Department said in a news release Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in the afternoon, VPD spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin said no one was injured in the incident, adding that the boy was "very lucky that he wasn't shot by police."

The teen was "immediately arrested," and police obtained a warrant and seized five additional guns, body armour, machetes, ammunition, fake guns and "a variety of controlled drugs" from the room, the VPD said.

Three of the additional guns were loaded, police said, describing them as a 357 Magnum and two revolvers.

Asked whether the teen was the primary resident of the room where he confronted police, Visintin said police don't know.

"We got reports that the room should have been unoccupied," Visintin said. "As far as staff there knew, this was an unoccupied room. Nobody should have been in it."

The 17-year-old has been charged with possession of a firearm, and the investigation is ongoing, police said.