Vancouver, BC, Man killed by police, Mentally ill

A 39-year-old animator shot and killed by Vancouver police last week suffered from bipolar disorder and was going through a manic episode during the fatal confrontation, his family said Monday.

Paul Boyd was a "gentle, humorous and compassionate" brother and son, the Vancouver man's family said in a statement.

"Most of the time he was well and few would have guessed that he suffered from any kind of mental disorder, but periodically he would suffer periods of mania and depression which could produce vivid paranoid delusions that made him fear imagined threats," the family said.

Boyd died after he was shot - as many as eight times - on Granville Street at 15th Avenue last Monday after two police officers were attacked with a chain and padlock.

Meanwhile, Vancouver police Const. Howard Chow said Monday a bystander may have videotaped the events leading up to the shooting or even the shooting itself.

"It's unconfirmed information, but there may have been somebody at a corner who may have had a video camera filming," Chow added.

Investigators have interviewed more than two dozen witnesses who were in the vicinity of the busy intersection at the time of the shooting.

Twenty more witnesses remain to be interviewed.

Some witnesses told The Vancouver Sun last week they didn't see Boyd wielding a weapon when he was shot by police. But Chow would not elaborate.

"We certainly don't want to put out [too much] information [about the shooting] that will taint witness accounts of what took place," he said.

Two senior officers injured in the incident were still on active duty, although Chow said one was still recovering from his head injuries.

Boyd's family said the "big and strong man" had been fighting his mental illness for 20 years and had a successful career at Global Mechanic, a Vancouver-based animation and production company.

"Over and over he faced these setbacks and bravely climbed back out of the depths of his illness and was able to work productively and enjoy a satisfying life," the family's statement said.

Phone calls to the small company, which also has a studio in Boston, were not returned Monday.

Boyd's family said the bachelor had an appearance that "could be intimidating to those who did not know him" but that his violent actions during the shooting were not "part of his personality."

Two memorials have been set up on Granville, steps away from where Boyd was shot.

Bouquets of daisies, roses and sunflowers were wrapped around a utility pole and a tree beneath a handmade sign on blue construction paper that read: "In Memoriam - Much Admired and Missed by Many."

On the tree, someone had drawn a Disney-like cartoon of a large burly man smiling and handing a little girl a flower. Underneath the tribute, someone wrote "RIP PB. We miss ya bud."

Boyd, who lived in an apartment in the 1100-block of West 12th Avenue, walking distance from the site of the shooting, was described by a neighbour as "nice and friendly."

Karina Irvine, 24, had lived in the same five-unit building with Boyd for a year and said he mainly kept to himself but had been acting unhappy recently.

Irvine said Boyd was always watering plants in his apartment and around the building and practised his golf swing in the building's backyard.

Her roommates saw him hours before the shooting Monday, wielding a hammer in the lane behind the building and smashing a garbage bag full of what they believed was glass.

She said he "was not doing so well" lately.

Dr. Lakshmi Yatham, a University of B.C. psychiatry professor and head of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders and the Canadian Network for Bipolar Disorders, said the events described by police leading up to the shooting are consistent with behaviour from bipolar patients during a manic episode.

"Some people in a manic episode can be extremely irritable and angry. They'll sleep very little, have lots of energy and their judgment can be impaired," Yatham said. "They can have paranoid delusions where they tend to feel that people are conspiring against them, and if you have police going towards them, they'll think the police are part of this conspiracy plan. They'll try to defend themselves."

Yatham said although some people in a manic state can still be reasoned with, others may need to be held down by force.

"Typically, police are trained to deal with people with mental illness because they deal with them all the time," he said.

Paul Boyd leaves behind his parents, two sisters, a niece and a nephew.

The investigation is continuing and anyone with information is asked to contact police at 604-717-2500.