Yao Wei Wu demonstrates what he says happened to him during an encounter with Vancouver police Thursday morning. (CBC)

A Vancouver lawyer says the violent, wrongful arrest of a Chinese man this week means the city's police must act decisively in dealing with the officers involved and will have to do more to regain trust in the Chinese community.

Lawyer Lawrence Wong made the remarks in response to statements by Vancouver resident Yao Wei Wu, who said he was brutalized by police who dragged him from his home in the middle of the night.

Wu said that although he offered no resistance, he was beaten by two plainclothes officers who came to his home about 2 a.m. Thursday investigating a report of a domestic dispute.

'You don't beat anybody up in this fashion, especially if you're the police'—Lawyer Lawrence Wong

Wu – who speaks very little English – said through a translator that the officers had pulled him outside the house and set upon him as soon as he opened the door.

As the officers apparently cannot claim self-defence in this case, they should no longer work for the police, said Wong.

"The officers should be fired and if they are not fired the chief of police should resign because he's not in control of his boys," Wong told CBC News.

Wu, 44, said doctors told him he had suffered fractures in the bones around his eye, which was swollen shut. He also sustained bruises to his knees and to his back, where he said the officers had struck him several times.

Wu's home in the area of Knight Street and 49th Avenue houses two suites and the officers had knocked on the wrong door, police admitted Friday.

But that was no excuse, said Wong.

"You don't beat anybody up in this fashion, especially if you're the police."

Wong said it appeared the officers, "took the law into their own hands," and meted out "mob justice."

Lawyer Lawrence Wong says if the victim's account is accurate, the Vancouver police officers involved should be fired. (CBC)

Wong said Vancouver's Chinese community should object "very loudly" to the incident, if it is found to have unfolded the way Wu claims it did.

It was only after they beat him and handcuffed him that they asked his name and realized they might have the wrong man, Wu said.

Police later arrested a man living in the other suite in the house on suspicion of assault after an altercation with his wife, who had made the original 911 call.

Chief issues double apology

At a news conference at police headquarters Friday, Chief Jim Chu not only issued a public apology for the arrest and injury of Wu, but also apologized for a statement released by police after the incident.

He said the department no longer stands by a police statement that alleged Wu was injured after he resisted arrest.

"We said Mr. Wu resisted arrest and was injured in the process. I want to make it perfectly clear this morning that we do not stand by that statement. This was information that was premature and released as fact when only an investigation can determine what happened," he said.

Chu would not say where the information about Wu resisting arrest came from, but said the department would conduct its own investigation into the incident and he saw no reason to bring in an outside force.

In the original statement issued Thursday, police said, "The man resisted by striking out at the police and trying to slam the door, but the officers persisted in the belief that there may be a woman and child inside who could be in danger."

The officers have not been suspended but are currently on their scheduled days off, he said.

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner said it also would investigate the incident.