Sunday was a sombre day for guests and long-term residents at a downtown Victoria hostel, where an early morning stabbing left one dead and put a front-desk agent in the hospital.
Officers responded to a report of a stabbing near the intersection of Pandora Avenue and Blanshard Street at 4 a.m. They found one man dead and another victim was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said in a statement.
One person was taken into custody and there is no further risk to the public, Victoria police said Sunday. The department did not respond to questions or provide an update Monday.
A manager at Ocean Island Inn hostel, at Pandora and Blanshard, said the front-desk agent involved in the incident sustained non-life-threatening injuries. The man who died was found outside the building, she said. The hostel did not respond to an interview request Monday.
A resident who has been staying at the hostel for several months and did not want to be named said he believes the man killed and the man arrested were both staying at the hostel. He described the man arrested as a heavy drinker who was socially awkward and was always by himself. He had been staying at the hostel for a few months, the resident said. He said he didn’t know the victim.
The resident said he believed the altercation began inside the hostel and spilled out of the building.
Many of the guests spent Sunday out of the hostel to get away from the crime scene, but by Monday, things had returned to normal, he said.
Access was restored to the hostel’s main entrance on Pandora Avenue and evidence markers had been removed from the street.
Police had restricted access to half the block as well as the entrances of Ocean Island Inn and the WIN resale shop next door for much of Sunday.
Police spent the day taking photos and gathering evidence, including a dark-coloured camouflage-patterned backpack that was left near a bloodstain on the pavement. Several bloodstains could be seen on the sidewalk. The sidewalk was also dotted with crime scene markers. Officers remained at the scene Sunday night, going in and out of the hostel.
Three visitors from Port Angeles who were staying at the Ocean Island Inn said they heard screaming outside on Pandora Avenue before the sirens.
A resident of Ocean Island Inn, who had lived there for several months and asked his name not to be used, said a knife could be seen lying on the floor in the reception area behind police tape.
Police are asking nearby businesses for security video.
The Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit has taken over the investigation.
— With files from Roxanne Egan-Elliott
