VANCOUVER — British Columbia's police watchdog group has cleared Vancouver police officers of wrongdoing in the arrest of a suspect in a stranger attack that led to the man's wrist being broken.
The Independent Investigations Office says in a report that there are no "reasonable grounds" to believe the officers committed an offence during the arrest in New Brighton Park in October 2023.
Officers were called to the park for a complaint that a man was stabbed in the arm with a pair of scissors by an unknown attacker.
The report says police identified a suspect using witnesses descriptions and found the man nearby, but he was unco-operative and refused to comply with commands to put his hands up and get on the ground.
Four beanbag rounds were fired at the suspect during the arrest, then the report says a police dog grabbed the man's arm and took him to the ground.
The man received a broken wrist during the arrest and required surgery, but the report says officers were "acting lawfully" with the threat level involving in a stranger attack with a sharp weapon.
"It could be dangerous for officers to approach the (suspect) and attempt to simply lay hands on them when a weapon was close at hand, and the (suspect) had recently used it," the report says.
"It was both necessary and reasonable, in those circumstances, for the (suspect's) compliance to be obtained initially by the use of the bean bag gun and then by a police dog to bring them to the ground to arrest them."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2025.
The Canadian Press
