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

Vancouver's police chief issued one apology and made a retraction on Friday morning after an innocent man was arrested and badly injured in a case of mistaken identity early Thursday morning.

At a news conference at police headquarters, Chief Jim Chu not only issued a public apology for the arrest and injury of Yao Wei 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.

Mistaken identity

Chu also outlined some details police were willing to release regarding events that led to the man's injury and arrest.

He said at around 2:20 a.m. PT, a caller phoned 911 about a domestic violence incident at an address in East Vancouver and two plainclothes officers were dispatched to the home.

The caller then clarified that she was in a basement suite at the rear of home, but the officers went to the wrong door.

On Thursday, Wu — who does not speak English — told CBC News through a translator that when he opened the door, the two officers pulled him from the house and beat him, hitting him multiple times on the back, head and face, eventually fracturing a bone around his eye.

He said he did not resist because the two men, whom he did not know were police, had guns.

Only after he was arrested and they asked him his name did the officers appear to realize they had the wrong man.

The man the police were looking for who lived in the other suite in the house was later found and arrested on suspicion of assault.