A police officer stands near an evidence tent outside the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, on Sept. 4. Police in Vancouver have identified both the man charged in Wednesday's gruesome stranger attacks and the victim killed in one of the attacks. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER - A 34-year-old man has been charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault over what police called a pair of stranger attacks in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday.

Vancouver police said in a statement that Brendan Colin McBride remained in custody until his next court appearance on Sept. 18.

Police also identified the man who died as 70-year-old Francis David Laporte.

Officers said the first attack occurred early Wednesday morning near Richards and Dunsmuir streets, where a man had his hand severed by his assailant.

Police said they aren't identifying that victim for privacy reasons and he remained in hospital.

While officers were investigating the first attack, police said Laporte was killed outside the nearby Queen Elizabeth Theatre at West Georgia and Hamilton streets.

Vancouver Police Chief Const. Adam Palmer said Wednesday that McBride, who had not been identified at the time, was on probation for a 2023 assault and had 60 previous police interactions.

Court documents show McBride was most recently sentenced to 18 months of probation in April over an assault that occurred in White Rock, B.C., last September

McBride was earlier sentenced to 12 months of probation in July 2022, stemming from a charge of assault causing bodily harm in January 2021.

Four other convictions, dating back to 2012, were all traffic violations.

Palmer said Wednesday that McBride was located near Vancouver's Olympic Village less than two hours after the attacks with the help of a police drone operator.

The VPD chief had said police were looking into whether mental health was a factor in the attacks, calling the suspect "very troubled" with a history of assaulting officers and health care workers.

A single charge of resisting a peace officer in September 2023 did not result a conviction for McBride, court records show.

Wednesday's gruesome attack spurred a call from Port Coquitlam, B.C., mayor Brad West for a mental hospital to replace the Riverview facility that closed in 2012.

"Closing Riverview Hospital was a historically stupid decision," West said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. "The evidence is all around us and, sadly, plays out through repeated tragedies."

Palmer said Wednesday that while such high-profile crimes "cause everyone to fear for their safety," statistics show crime trending down in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2024.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024