A suspect has been charged in a terrifying downtown attack that left one man dead and another with a severed hand.
Brendan Colin McBride, a 34-year-old White Rock man, is facing one count of second-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault.
On Wednesday at 7:38 a.m., Vancouver police responded to a victim who had been attacked near the Holy Rosary Cathedral at Dunsmuir and Richards streets. They found a 56-year-old man nearby who had been attacked with a knife while on the steps of the church and was bleeding from his head; the man’s left hand had also been severed.
Eight minutes after the first attack, officers rushed to Queen Elizabeth Theatre at West Georgia and Hamilton streets where another man had been attacked. He died at the scene.
A short time later, police were called to Olympic Village where a suspect was reportedly behaving “erratically” and yelling at bystanders. Police arrived on scene and were able to locate a man near Habitat Island and he was arrested.
On Thursday, police identified the homicide victim as Francis David Laporte, 70.
The identity of the other victim has not been released, though police say he is recovering in hospital after undergoing surgery for his severed hand.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Vancouver police chief Adam Palmer said the suspect was “a very troubled man who has a lengthy history of mental health-related incidents that have resulted in 60 documented contacts with police throughout Metro Vancouver.”
Court records show that McBride faced charges of assault and wilfully resisting or obstructing an officer in relation to a September 2023 incident in White Rock. He was later convicted of assault. Following the conviction, McBride was subject to an 18-month probation order.
McBride has also had interactions with police in Merritt, North Vancouver and Surrey.
Vancouver police had said that at the time of Wednesday’s attacks, the suspect was on probation after being found guilty of assault in a 2023 incident in White Rock.
McBride remains in police custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 18.
Police are asking any witnesses or those with information about the attacks, who have yet to speak with investigators, to contact homicide police at 604-717-2500.
More to come.