Man stabbed to death outside bar - locals whine.

Man stabbed to death outside bar Richards Street in downtown Vancouver cordoned off Sunday during investigation Allison Cross, Vancouver Sun Published: Sunday, August 24, 2008VANCOUVER — A 25-year-old man is dead after he was stabbed outside a downtown Vancouver nightclub over the weekend, according to police.

The victim got into a fight with another man outside the Atlantis Night Club on Richards Street just after 2 a.m., was stabbed and later died of his injuries, said Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness.

  Vancouver Police kept Richards street closed around the Atlantis nightclub Sunday after an overnight stabbing left one man dead. Photograph by : Ward Perrin/Vancouver SunPolice said they could not release any more details about the incident and would not say whether anyone had been arrested in connection with the stabbing.

Police had the club cordoned off on Sunday morning and Richards Street was closed between Davie and Pacific streets.

A witness told Global TV he saw a two men physically fighting each other outside the club.

Tammy MacDonald, who lives nearby, said she woke up in the middle of the night to a chorus of sirens from emergency vehicles.

“I’m not surprised,” said MacDonald, when she heard there had been a stabbing.

“It’s not so much the club that’s the problem but these guys outside [on the street] afterwards. It worries me. It’s right in your neighbourhood.”

Another resident who lives at the corner of Davie and Richards said the crowds coming out of the club are often very loud on the weekends.

“It worries me a little bit,” said Akiko Yabana, 27.

But Mark Trepp, who lives two blocks west of the Atlantis, said a stabbing in his neighbourhood isn’t something to be concerned about.

“It’s not a big deal,” he said, as he walked past the police barricades. “It happens in Vancouver.”

To increase the safety of their downtown establishments, many bars owners have signed up for a program called Bar Watch designed to discourage thugs and gangsters from coming to their clubs.

Participating clubs use metal detectors and ID scanners and allow police to remove known or suspected gangsters from their establishments.

Clubs also display a large red Bar Watch decal.  

Atlantis does not participate in Bar Watch and never has, said program chair John Teti.

“If [the suspects] were in the club at some point before the fight, the metal detectors could have prevented what happened,” Teti said.

Another stabbing occurred over the weekend at the Surrey Central SkyTrain station.

A man was stabbed a number of times by another man while standing on the main platform just before 1 a.m. on Sunday morning, said Surrey RCMP’s Sgt. Evan Conway. No one was arrested in connection with the case.

The victim was taken to hospital and is in stable condition, Conway said.

across@vancouversun.com

©Vancouver Sun 2008