Victim of Vancouver stranger attacks had surgery to reattach severed hand: police

The surviving victim of a pair of stranger attacks in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday has undergone surgery to reattach his hand after it was severed in the assault, according to police.

The victim, who police identified only as a man in his 50s, was the first person assaulted early Wednesday morning in what Vancouver's police chief referred to as two "completely random" attacks.

The man suffered a severed hand and knife wounds to his head near Richards and Dunsmuir streets shortly after 7:30 a.m. His hand was recovered from the scene and he was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

The second victim, identified as 70-year-old Francis David Laporte, was killed minutes later outside the nearby Queen Elizabeth Theatre at West Georgia and Hamilton streets.

The surviving victim has undergone at least one surgery to reattach his hand, according to police.

Vancouver police spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison said in an emailed statement Friday that while he could not speculate on the man’s condition, he was "likely to have a long road to recovery – both physically and mentally."

A Vancouver Coastal Health authority spokesperson could not discuss the surgery, citing privacy concerns, and was not able to comment on reattachment surgeries or their success rates at Vancouver hospitals generally.  

Approximately 90 Vancouver police officers were involved in the initial response to the attacks and the eventual arrest of a suspect, according to the police department. At least one of those officers applied a tourniquet to arm of the man whose hand was severed, Addison confirmed.

Brendan Colin McBride, 34, of White Rock, B.C., was arrested on Habitat Island, near Vancouver's Olympic Village, when officers were called to reports that a man was behaving erratically in the area.

McBride was charged Thursday with one count of second-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault. He remains in police custody pending his next court appearance on Sept. 18.

Vancouver police Chief Adam Palmer said Wednesday that the suspect was on probation for a 2023 assault at the time of his arrest and had 60 previous interactions with police.

Court documents show McBride was sentenced to 18 months of probation in April for an assault last September. He was previously charged with assault causing bodily harm in January 2021 and sentenced to 12 months of probation the following year.

The police chief described the suspect as a "very troubled" man and said investigators were working to confirm if there was any motive for the attacks.

"I think that we have to realize that there's too many unwell people walking around in our streets," Palmer told reporters, though he added statistics show crime rates are declining in the city.