One man stabbed by Abdi Hirsi, the knife-wielding man police ultimately gunned down near First United Church two weeks ago, says Hirsi attacked him two days before in another bizarre incident.

Kathiye Elmi says he was approached by Hirsi just before midnight April 7 at the same place, and the fellow Somalian asked for a place to stay in Vancouver.

Hirsi then turned on Elmi when he smelt that the 40-year-old had been drinking.

“He said, ‘I smell alcohol, you dress funny,’” Elmi told CTV News. “He grabbed me, dropped me on the floor right there and pulled out the knife."

Elmi, who suffered a cut on his forehead and a black eye in the incident, said he was told he'd be left alone if he bowed down before God.

Vancouver police confirm that an incident involving a punch and a cut at that location and time happened, and that the victim refused police assistance.

Then, two days later, surveillance video shows Hirsi approaching Elmi and another man with a knife. The brawl spills out onto Hastings Street. Elmi was stabbed in the head requiring nine stitches, while the other man was stabbed in the torso.

Hirsi can be seen heading for Gore Street, where several police officers attempt to subdue him with beanbag guns. Video shows him frantically moving before he stabs a bystander, Natalie, four times. That’s when police shot him seven times and ended the attack.

Hirsi’s family have said that he was a peaceful man, a basketball player and a post-secondary graduate. He had just arrived in Vancouver from Edmonton on April 7.

None of it makes sense, said Elmi.

“My impression was that he was mentally challenged somehow. Something was not right up there. If he was okay, he wouldn’t have stabbed that lady too. What did she do to him?”

If it’s not controlled by medication, some mental health issues can make people dangerous. In a similar case two years ago, Nicholas Osuteye was arrested in his underwear after beating three women at random. He was found not criminally responsible as he was schizophrenic.

Ousuteye is now in a forensic hospital. Hirsi is dead. The police watchdog the Independent Investigations Office is now investigating the incident.