Canadian police say stabbing suspect shot dead by police in Vancouver

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A stabbing suspect is dead after being shot by police in a convenience store in the Western Canadian city of Vancouver, police said.

Vancouver police said the suspect died in hospital Wednesday after being shot and two people suffered injuries that are not thought to be life threatening.

Vancouver Police Constable Tania Visintin said one person was stabbed in the hand and another person has facial injuries, but she didn’t how how the second person was injured.

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Witnesses say a man stole liquor and a knife from a restaurant then used the weapon across the street to stab people in a 7-Eleven store.

“One of the kitchen guys came out, asked if he could help him, and the guy grabbed the knife and asked him if he wanted to die,” said Kylie Noel, who was working at the Original Joe’s restaurant at Robson and Hamilton streets in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday.

Her co-worker then told her to call police.

Video later captured by Mainul Islam, a student and part-time food delivery worker, shows police pointing their guns over the counter of the 7-Eleven, shouting at someone to “move over,” then firing at least 10 times.

Islam said he had been picking up a food order when he saw a “homeless guy” trying to steal cigarettes behind the counter. He said staff were trying to stop the man.

“And he just brought out his knife from his pocket, and he tried to stab … the guy, but he ran away, and then he went to stab that lady. Maybe he already stabbed that lady in the back, I saw blood, but she was OK.”

He said the police were there within minutes and “just shot this guy.”

Noel said that before the shooting, a man came into Original Joe’s and stood by the restaurant’s door, opened a laptop computer and “demanded a glass of water.” Noel said she refused, and went back to tell kitchen staff that the man was refusing to leave.

She said he had left by the time other workers came out, but Noel then saw him outside with a bottle of alcohol she believed was stolen from the restaurant, which she later confirmed by watching security camera footage.

When Noel returned to the restaurant’s main floor, the man was again behind the bar, and Noel ran back down to tell her colleagues in the kitchen. She said that was when the man grabbed the knife and threatened Noel’s co-worker.

In Islam’s video of the shooting, a stun gun held by an officer appears to have already been fired, with the wires trailing over the counter inside the convenience store.

“Move over, right now. Move over,” one officer shouts at the unseen suspect before gunfire is heard.