Man apprehended after vehicle driven into Pacific Coliseum during event
Posted June 5, 2025 10:50 pm.
Last Updated June 6, 2025 6:14 pm.
A 30-year-old man has been arrested and detained under the Mental Health Act after a vehicle was driven into Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum.
It happened around 8 p.m. Thursday while a Cirque du Soleil performance was taking place inside the stadium.
“The vehicle approached the Coliseum at what was described to us as a high rate of speed,” Sgt. Steve Addison with the Vancouver Police Department told CityNews Vancouver.
“I can’t tell you exactly what that speed was, but it drove up to the front doors and collided with a cement column, which likely stopped it from entering into the Coliseum,” he explained.
Images from the scene show a heavily damaged, newer model, black BMW sedan up against the column at the venue’s main entrance.
Addison says security was able to catch and hold the driver until police arrived, adding it is a miracle that no one was injured or killed.
“He’s a 30-year-old man, a Vancouver man, and we believe, based on information we’ve received from others in the community, information from witnesses, and observations from our own officers, that he appeared to be in some sort of a mental health episode,” Addison said.
Addison says investigators don’t believe it was an act of terrorism.
“He’s receiving treatment at hospital. That doesn’t mean a criminal investigation doesn’t take place … If the investigation results in evidence that supports criminal charges, we will be pursuing that.”
In a news conference, Addison said it appears the man was having delusions at the time of the incident.
“He was speaking and acting erratically, specifically having religious delusions, talking about Satan, talking about God, saying other things that made it very apparent that he was experiencing a mental health crisis,” he said.
“He was clearly acting in a way that placed himself and members of the public in immediate danger.”
Addison says that prior to the incident, the man was with a group of people at a church, and one of the people there made a 911 call about him before he left the church.
“My understanding is he was at a Bible study group that meets every Thursday night,” Addison said.
“He left shortly after that 911 call was made, and we did not encounter him until he crashed that vehicle into the Coliseum.”
Addison says the man drove from the church to the area around the Coliseum.
“We have witnesses who tell us they saw him in that big parking lot that’s located on the north side of the Coliseum,” he said.
“We’re not entirely sure of the exact sequence of events that happened next, but what we do know is that sometime around eight o’clock, just after eight o’clock, the vehicle drove north towards the Coliseum.”
One of the witnesses said he initially thought the incident was part of the show.
“Heard this big bang, and I thought, okay, it’s part of the show,” Mike Roberts said. “And then all of a sudden, I looked down to the right of my seat as I was in the back row of the section I was in, and son saw a small piece of the vehicle sitting beside me, thinking, well, this can’t be right.”
The incident happened exactly 40 days after the Lapu-Lapu Day tragedy in East Vancouver, in which 11 people were killed and dozens more injured in a vehicle ramming attack.
“Everybody is on edge when an incident like this happens. There are some similar circumstances involving a vehicle into a building, which obviously heightens everybody’s anxiety and raises a lot of questions,” Addison explained.
Addison says investigators still have a lot of work to do to understand all the circumstances around the crash.
“Nobody was killed, nobody was injured. That said, terrifying incident for anybody who was there,” Addison said.
With files from Mike Lloyd, Chad Harris, Erin Conners, Joe Sadowski, and Kier Junos.
