Teen arrested after violent, random home invasion in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A violent attack overnight has left one man recovering from serious stab wounds and a teen is in custody.

Vancouver Police say around 1:15 a.m., officers were called to a home on Ferndale Street near Lakewood Drive after getting reports of a stabbing. When they got in the house they found a 27-year-old man with serious stab wounds. He was taken to the hospital in stable condition and has since been released.

“Speaking with the victim and other occupants of the home, police determined that they were the victims of a home invasion, and the suspect was not known to them,” explains VPD Staff Sergeant Randy Fincham.

This attack appears to be random and police are trying to figure out what the motive may have been. “What would motivate somebody to enter into a private home? This 27-year-old man, who was sleeping at the time, was woken to someone actually stabbing him — obviously, very frightening for anybody to wake up to a situation like that. It’s very traumatic. Fortunately, the injuries at this point, don’t appear to be life-threatening or as serious as originally thought. [It] was a gruesome scene when police arrived on scene.”

They don’t know if the suspect entered the home armed or whether he picked up something inside. “It’s certainly concerning to us why this person would choose a home that is occupied, that has people inside at the time and somebody was singled out and obviously targeted. We don’t know why, at this point, why that particular home was targeted. Why this individual or individuals possibly were being targeted. We have nothing to suggest the victim had anything that would draw someone to that home,” adds Fincham.

He adds at about 2 a.m., police found the man they believed to be responsible, in the area of East Pender Street and Garden Drive. When they tried to talk to him, he ran off. A K9 Unit was used to track the man down and he was arrested in the area of Garden Drive and Triumph Street. He suffered a minor injury and was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

The 19-year-old is now in police custody. “The suspect isn’t known to police. We haven’t dealt with him before in Vancouver. He’s new to Vancouver. We don’t have significant criminal history elsewhere in Canada as well. The suspect’s background will form a fairly significant part of this investigation. Whether there was something else going on in this person’s life that could have contributed to something like this is certainly something that we will look at. We’re not ruling anything out at this point,” says Fincham.

Vancouver Police confirm a number of cars were reportedly broken into in the area of this home invasion last night, but they don’t know if the suspect is linked to those crimes as well. “We didn’t have a lot of other areas of the city where stuff like this was going on as far the theft from autos.”

Fincham hopes anyone who saw anything or anyone suspicious comes forward “so we can track this person’s actions possibly or this person’s movements within that neighbourhood. We’re not saying this person committed those theft from autos but certainly we are hoping there are witnesses out there who saw something.”

Charges have yet to be recommended.