Man in serious condition after falling three storeys as police tried to arrest him
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include information from VPD and IIO as of 2 pm on Friday, March 10.
A man is in serious condition with life-threatening injuries after Vancouver Police officers made an arrest attempt on Hastings Street Thursday afternoon.
VPD went to a single-room occupancy hotel in the city’s Downtown Eastside to make an arrest. The suspect reportedly fell three storeys from a window, prompting a serious investigation.
The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO), which conducts investigations into any incident of death or serious harm where a police officer was involved, investigated the incident.
A rep from the IIO told Daily Hive that Vancouver Police notified them at 1:30 pm on Thursday, March 9, about an incident at 403 East Hastings Street.
An IIO officer with VPD officers | Photo by Rakesh Dutt
“Vancouver Police, in the building to make an arrest, had called from the hallway for a man to come out from a room. The man instead climbed out of the room’s third-floor window and fell to the street below. He sustained serious injuries and was transported to hospital, where he remains in critical condition,” said IIO.
IIO investigated and examined CCTV footage showing that “while officers were in the hallway, the man took it upon himself to climb out of the window of the room in order to evade arrest, and that officers were not responsible for the man’s actions or for the injuries that resulted from the fall.”
VPD officers on scene | Photo by Rakesh Dutt
In a release by VPD, the department said officers were called by staff at an SRO near Hastings and Dunlevy just before 12:30 p.m., asking for police assistance to remove a man from the building.
According to VPD, the 25-year-old man had a BC-wide warrant. Officers tried to speak to the man in the hallway of the building when witnesses saw him fall from his window.
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