Murder, aggravated assault charges laid in Vancouver stranger attacks

Charges of murder and aggravated assault in a pair of brutal stranger attacks in downtown Vancouver were approved Thursday, one day after the rush-hour rampage left one man dead and another with a severed hand.

Brendan Colin McBride, 34, of White Rock, B.C., has been charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault in what the city's police chief described as "completely random" attacks on Wednesday morning.

Police were called to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary on Dunsmuir Street shortly after 7:30 a.m. for reports that a man in his 50s had suffered a severed hand and knife wounds to his head. The man was taken to hospital, where he remained Thursday after undergoing surgery, according to police

Eight minutes later, at 7:46 a.m., officers were called to the area of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre where a second man was reportedly attacked. The victim, who police identified as 70-year-old Francis David Laporte, died at the scene.

More than an hour later, a 34-year-old suspect was arrested on Habitat Island, near the Olympic Village, when officers were called to reports that a man was behaving erratically and yelling at a passerby.

During a news conference in the wake of the attacks, Vancouver police Chief Adam Palmer described the suspect as a "very troubled" man with a history of violent offences.

Court records show McBride was on probation for a 2023 assault at the time of his arrest. He remains in police custody with a court appearance scheduled for Sept. 18.