Burnaby RCMP is recommending a 46-year-old man arrested in Metrotown with two long knives Wednesday be kept in custody until his trial.
Police were called to the Panarama Tower Apartments on Grange Street at about 3:10 p.m. by a building manager after he saw the suspect wielding a long knife and acting erratically just outside the lobby, according to Burnaby RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Mike Kalanj.
“He called us because this person had a couple knives and was just acting erratic,” Kalanj said. “He was banging on the glass of the lobby. Obviously, the manager was worried about the safety of everyone in the building.”
But the manager also warned police that kids returning from school would soon be arriving in the area, according to Kalanj.
“We were there pretty quick,” he said.
Six officers and a K9 unit responded and located the man just down the block from the apartment tower.
“He at first wasn’t listening, but they did take him into custody with no injury,” Kalanj said.
Even without the fatal stabbing spree in North Vancouver Saturday, Burnaby RCMP would treat such a weapons call very seriously, according to Kalanj, but that event has heightened their concern in the case.
“We’ll be asking the courts to keep (the suspect) in custody until trial, and some of that is in light of what happened in North Vancouver,” Kalanj said. “ You can never say, but every time there’s a big incident like what happened there, there’s always a fear of, I don’t know if I want to say copycats, but things like that happen.”
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