A Vancouver police officer was injured by a knife-wielding man earlier this week.
Around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, VPD received multiple 911 calls from the public about a man waving a knife around Clark Drive and Hastings Street.
A video of the alleged incident was shared with Glacier Media and shows the man running towards police.
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer described the video as "bone-chilling," and said it shows the "real stressors and challenging and dangerous situations" officers face every day.
“When they arrived at the scene, a man stepped out onto the street with a knife in his hand, approached the officers aggressively and refused commands to drop the knife,” says Palmer.
A beanbag shotgun and a Taser was used on the man. He was arrested and taken to hospital.
Abolfazl Amini, 36, was charged on March 21 with assault with a weapon in connection with a March 20 attack on a Vancouver Police Department officer.
Const. Tania Visintin says the officer's injuries were minor and not life-threatening.
Provincial court documents indicate Amini appeared in Downtown Community Court.
Amini was deemed unfit for court and was ordered held for an overnight assessment.
He is due back in the same court on March 22.
“That person does not have any kind of dealings with the police of any significance,” says Palmer. “There are some mental health issues at play, not in Vancouver, but in another jurisdiction in Metro Vancouver."
This was one of many unrelated violent incidents in Vancouver’s downtown on Wednesday.
