Vancouver Police Department (VPD) says the city’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) hosted another “volatile” long weekend, with officers seizing more loaded guns, bear spray, and other weapons..Numerous arrests were made as officers responded to in-progress crimes..About 2:30 a.m. Sunday, officers spotted three men in balaclavas jay-walking near Abbott Street. Upon stopping the men to write a ticket, officers discovered one of them was in possession of a loaded handgun. The other two were carrying knives and bear spray..A 22-year-old man has been charged with possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm and possession of a firearm with an altered serial number..In another incident, the department says officers observed a man commit a bylaw offence just before 10 a.m. Saturday morning. The man fled, however, he was arrested less than a block away after a brief foot chase. Officers recovered a loaded handgun and illicit drugs. The 25-year-old man was charged with possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm..On Sunday morning a woman in her 30s was bear sprayed outside the Carnegie Centre at Main and East Hastings. Police tracked the suspect to a tent near the Patricia Hotel, where they arrested two men and recovered another firearm — this time a sawed-off shotgun..A Winnipeg man in his 20s and a 40-year-old Alberta man are due in court in April for that incident..On Tuesday, officers patrolling East Hastings stopped a man who was “riding his bike recklessly through traffic and on the sidewalk.” The cyclist had bail conditions not to be in the area. When officers arrested him they found a gun, a machete, bear spray, a baton, and ammunition.. DTES .The uptick in weapons seizures comes as VPD investigates a broad-daylight shooting near Main and Hastings that left a 31-year-old man with serious injuries over the weekend. Jamie George Guimond, 32, was charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm in connection with the incident, police said Monday..Volunteers at a clean needle depot, which operates out of an alley connecting East Hastings and East Cordova, told the Western Standard Saturday night that while the neighbourhood has been rough for decades, they noticed it began degenerating at a more rapid pace during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020..Amid the sound of desolate wails emanating from outside the depot’s window, one of the volunteers shared a story about getting stabbed in the leg after he refused to give another man his phone..“There are great people on the street here,” he said..“Others will stab you in the f-king neck with no second thought.".Another volunteer — a grizzled, high-functioning heroin user who was hit by a truck more than a decade ago, leading to years of prescription opioid use and eventually dependence — shared similar stories..Within no more than a second he whipped a fixed blade out of his pocket and lunged it forward, half-comedically demonstrating his counter-mugging technique..Vancouver has seen a 28.5% increase in assaults with a weapon or causing serious bodily harm compared to pre-COVID.
