Police fatally shoot man on Vancouver’s Granville Bridge | CBC News

The Vancouver Police Department says it has notified B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office after a fatal police-involved shooting on the Granville Bridge Thursday evening.

In a statement, the VPD said officers responded at 6:45 p.m. after a 911 caller reported a person acting erratically.

“When officers arrived there was an altercation that resulted in the man being shot and killed by police,” reads the statement.

VPD Sgt. Steve Addison spoke to reporters later Thursday night.

“There’s still lots we don’t know about what happened,” Addison said, adding the Independent Investigations Office (IIO), which investigates all police interactions in the province when someone is killed or seriously injured, will be leading a probe into what happened.

Addison said the person who called 911 felt that a man who was walking on the bridge was “acting in a way that was a danger to public safety.”

“When our officers arrived on scene, during the altercation, the officers perceived that there was a threat of either death or grievous bodily harm to them or others,” Addison said, explaining multiple officers responded to the call but it will be up to the IIO to determine how many of them fired their weapons.

“We believe at this point that the person either had a weapon or had access to a weapon.”

The Granville Bridge was still shut down as of 10:30 p.m. Thursday, and Addison said he expected it to remain closed for several more hours.

In a separate statement, the IIO said it had deployed investigators to the area Thursday night and will be trying to confirm the details of what happened during the altercation.

The organization is asking anyone who may have witnessed what happened or recorded video footage of the incident to contact the toll-free witness line at 1 855-446-8477 or fill out the contact form on their website.