Police were called to the mall with reports of a man threatening people with a knife
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A man was shot and killed by police at a busy North Vancouver shopping plaza on Tuesday afternoon.
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Just after 1 p.m., officers were called to the Westview Shopping Centre in the 2600-block of Westview Drive where a man with an edged weapon was reportedly threatening members of the public inside a business, the RCMP said in a news release.
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“The suspect subsequently exited the business, entered a vehicle in the parking lot, and collided with multiple parked vehicles,” police said.
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According to RCMP, the suspect got out of the vehicle at a gas station in the same plaza. Police arrived on the scene and interacted with the suspect. The suspect then got into the driver’s seat of an unoccupied police vehicle. A conducted energy weapon was deployed, and shots were fired by police.
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Sunrise
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The suspect was taken to hospital where he later died.
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The incident is now under investigation by the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. The office is deployed when there has been a death or serious harm that may have been caused by police officers.
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One witness, Arman Abadi, told Global News the suspect first entered a McDonald’s restaurant and went behind the counter and was seen holding a knife to a woman’s throat.
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Abadi said he was able to wrestle the knife away from the suspect before the suspect fled the restaurant and got into a truck. The truck then collided with another vehicle.
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Another witness, Bahman Afshari, told Global News he came out of his pizza store to see what was happening.
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“I see the guy sitting in the pickup truck over there … and they have a knife in his hand, try to hit the people who would get close to them,” he told Global News.
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“Then he couldn’t run away from the car, he jumped in the gas station, going in the other car, couldn’t go that way, again tried the other car. Then he can’t go that way, there is one cop’s car coming, he’s beside him, he jumps in the cop’s car, tries to get away from him, and he gets shot.”
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