Vancouver Police step up patrols in the Downtown Eastside amid recent gun violence

Vancouver Police are temporarily increasing the number of officers in the Downtown Eastside after nearly a week of gun violence which has residents and businesses shaken up.

Vancouver Police say they are temporarily increasing the number of officers in the Downtown Eastside after nearly a week of gun violence that’s left people shaken up.

Thursday morning, a 24-year-old man was shot while riding his bike near East Hastings and Carrall Streets.

The man was able to make it back home to an SRO hotel before calling 9-1-1, according to Sgt. Steve Addison.

“Nobody should put up with this level of violence and lack of safety in their neighborhoods. And what we’ve seen in the last number of days certainly increases our concern for people’s safety in that neighborhood, which does include a significant number of marginalized and vulnerable people,” Addison said while speaking to reporters Thursday.

VPD officers say they recovered 14 real and replica firearms in the neighbourhood over the last 4 days, some of which led to arrests.

“We received a 9-1-1 call from a woman who had been pepper sprayed in front of the Carnegie Community Center on Sunday morning, we were able to track a suspect to a couple of tents in the areas of Patricia Hotel. We recovered a shotgun and two men were arrested in that case,” Addison said.

Also on Sunday, a man was arrested after a daylight shooting which left a 31-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds.

“We also have our investigators, organized crime investigators working behind the scenes to better understand what has led to so many guns in the neighbourhood during the last number of days. We’re not sure at this point whether or not this ia a blip on the radar or if there’s something bigger that’s happening. We need to look into that a little bit more to get a better grasp on that,” Addison explained.