Vancouver police have arrested a suspect in the fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old Burnaby man early Saturday morning.
The victim, Joshua Jonathan Tanasiuk, was stabbed inside a car in the 1300-block of Victoria Drive by a fellow passenger at around 12:30 a.m.
Tanasiuk was not known to police.
Const. Lindsey Houghton said the driver, who is a friend of the deceased, stopped the car and ran away after the attack. The stabbing was reported by citizens who checked the car and found Tanasiuk critically injured inside.
"[Tanasiuk] was friends with the driver and the driver is extremely emotionally traumatized by this," Houghton said.
A 22-year-old suspect of no fixed address was located at 2:30 a.m. Sunday at a home on West 10th Avenue. He was arrested without incident and remains in police custody.
Houghton said the motive for the stabbing is unclear, and investigators are unsure of the relationship between the suspect and the victim.
"Investigators do know that the crime occurred inside the vehicle. How the three people came to be inside the vehicle at that time still remains part of the investigation," Houghton said.
Houghton said investigators have ruled out ties to gangs or drugs, but the suspect is known to police.
Charges in the stabbing, which marks Vancouver's 11th homicide of 2011, are pending.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Vancouver Police Department Homicide Unit at 604-717-2500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
