The shooting at a North Vancouver mall on Tuesday afternoon was captured on video by multiple witnesses, with many of those videos circulating online.
They show RCMP officers with their guns drawn, yelling at the suspect to get on the ground.
The man appears to ignore them.
Witnesses told Global News on Tuesday that the suspect was seen holding a knife to a woman’s throat inside a McDonald’s at the Westview Shopping Centre when another man intervened.
“He pulls out a knife and takes one of the employees hostage,” witness Arman Abadi said.
“Most people run out of the restaurant. I wait inside, trying to see what’s going on.”
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Abadi jumped into action.
“He turns his back to me, I wrestle with him, get the knife away from him, throw it under the table and I start fighting,” he said.
North Vancouver RCMP said the suspect got into a vehicle in the parking lot and then crashed into several parked cars.
Witnesses told Global News they even saw the suspect attempting to pour gasoline on himself before getting into an unoccupied RCMP SUV.
RCMP said a taser was deployed and several shots were fired.
The suspect, who has not been named, was rushed to the hospital, but later died from his injuries.
The Independent Investigations Office is now looking into what happened and asking witnesses to come forward.
“Especially interested in speaking to people who were at the gas station during the incident and who witnessed the interaction between the man and police take place, or who may have recorded it at that point,” Simon Druker, spokesperson for the Independent Investigations Office, said.
Anyone can contact the office toll-free at 1-855-446-8477 or via the contact form on the iiobc.ca website.
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