Homeless man threatened with a loaded gun in the Downtown Eastside

The Downtown Eastside homeless encampment on East Hastings Street, near Main Street, as of July 21, 2022. (Submitted)

Vancouver Police have arrested a suspect after an investigation revealed that he allegedly pointed a loaded gun at a homeless man in the Downtown Eastside on Saturday morning.

According to a statement from the VPD, officers responded immediately after a bystander called the police to report an altercation between two men in the lane behind the Carnegie Centre on Main and Hastings streets.

Thankfully, the victim wasn’t harmed in the altercation.

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According to police, the suspect fled but was later arrested by officers near Main and Keefer streets.

Police have also named the suspect as 33-year-old Luis Alfredo Gaitan-Tijerino.

Gaitan-Tijerino has been charged with numerous offences, including assault, possession of a weapon, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, using a firearm during the commission of an indictable offence, and unauthorized possession of a loaded firearm.

“People without homes are already far more likely to become victims of violent crime than those who have stable housing, and those risks increase for people living in and around encampments,” said VPD Sergeant Steve Addison in a statement.

“This incident underscores the dangers facing vulnerable people – especially those living on the streets in the Downtown Eastside.”

The incident involving a loaded gun is one of many of its kind we’ve recently seen in the Downtown Eastside.

According to the VPD, between July 1 and August 31, there was a 45% increase in serious assaults and assaults with weapons in the Downtown Eastside encampment zone.

When comparing those numbers to last year, there has been a 61% increase in weapon offences “compared to two months prior to the encampment.”

Last week, the VPD revealed that they had seized a sawed-off shotgun and other weapons from a tent in the Downtown Eastside.