Vancouver man charged after altercation, police-involved shooting
Posted August 1, 2022 6:39 am.
Charges have been laid in connection with an aggravated assault that led to a police-involved shooting on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside over the weekend.
Vancouver police say two officers were sitting in their cruiser in the area of East Hastings and Columbia streets around 8 a.m. Saturday when a man reportedly walked up and hit one of them with a weapon through an open window.
The VPD has said one of the officers used their taser to try to stop the man, but that “ultimately, the suspect was subdued after shots were fired.”
Witnesses who were nearby previously told CityNews they heard four gunshots.
A second officer who arrived to help was also said to have been assaulted by a bystander, though they were not seriously hurt, Const. Tania Visintin said.
Fifty-two-year-old John Corey McKay, who is now facing one count of aggravated assault, was taken to the hospital, where he remains. The VPD says the officer who was hit received “a serious head injury” and was also taken to the hospital.
B.C.’s police watchdog has been called in as is the case anytime someone dies or is hurt during an interaction with officers.
McKay is set to appear in court on Aug. 3.
-With files from Andrew Cowie and The Canadian Press
