According to police spokesperson Jana McGuinness the man shot by police was a suspect in the break-in of a van parked at the 700 block of Granville Street. She claims he advanced on police at the scene with an X-Acto utility knife.

Smolcic was across the street watching the incident play out. He says one of two police officers on the scene opened fire when the man took the X-Acto knife out of his backpack. As for McGuinness' claim that that the man was advancing on the police, Smolcic disagrees -"No, absolutely not. He was very shaky, but he wasn't making any moves toward the police at all that I saw."

Smolcic said he continued to record the incident after the man was shot. He was approached by a police officer who asked for his cellphone.

Smolcic:

He saw me filming and he came up to me and he asked to see my cellphone. He had my cellphone for a few minutes, and it appeared as though he was previewing the film. He gave me back my cellphone, probably about four or five minutes after he took it, told me to get lost, and of course, I did.

When the cellphone was returned, Smolcic says there was no video on it. He plans to take his phone to a forensics expert to see if the video can be retrieved from the hard drive.

Defence lawyer Mark Jette said police can't seize a phone or anything else unless they believe that there is material evidence that can be used in a criminal case. However they are required to preserve the evidence intact.

This case is still under investigation, but clearly any officer who erases a cellphone video on the street is engaging in an effort to cover-up evidence rather than 'preserve' it.