Man shot by police in Vancouver facing aggravated assault charge for attack on officer: VPD

A man who was shot by police in Vancouver`s Downtown Eastside Saturday has been charged with aggravated assault for his alleged attack on an officer.

The Vancouver Police Department announced Sunday that the charge was approved The accused, 52-year-old John Corey McKay remains in hospital and is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday. No details have been provided about McKay's injuries.

At around 8 a.m. Saturday, the VPD says officers were patrolling near East Hastings and Columbia streets when "a man carrying a weapon approached their police car and struck an officer on his head through an open window," Const. Tania Visintin said in Sunday's statement. 

Visintin's staement also said a taser was used before shots were fired and the suspect was "subdued," a detail that was not reported by police Saturday. 

No details about the weapon have been provided. "That part will come out in the IIO investigation," Visintin wrote in an email Sunday. 

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. was called in to probe the case.

In its own statement on the incident, the IIO made no mention of the alleged assault on a VPD officer, saying only that police driving in the area had "observed a man waving a weapon."

That was followed by "an interaction," during which shots were fired by police, according to the IIO.

The IIO is called whenever a police incident in B.C. results in death or serious harm to a member of the public. The office investigates to determine whether police action or inaction contributed to the injury, and is called to all such events, regardless of whether there is an allegation of wrongdoing on the part of police.