It took police officers drawing their revolvers, using pepper spray and batons to take down a blood-covered 53-year-old man hopped up on booze and drugs Sunday night.

The man is still recovering at Royal Inland Hospital, being watched because it's suspected he might have overdosed, RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said Monday.

At 9:15 p.m. Sunday, officers were called to a John Howard Society run building, the Lighthouse, for a report of a man with a knife.

When they arrived, they found the bloodied man not with a knife, but holding glass bottles and a glass mug. He was standing in front of an apartment unit with a broken window.

The officers tried to get the man to spread out on the ground. He responded by throwing a bottle at the head of one of the members.

Officers drew their guns, then pepper sprayed the man. Learned said it had almost no effect on the man, although he did start to move toward the apartment with the broken window and away from the police.

At that point, the police got out their batons and struck the man on his lower legs until they could take him into custody.

A resident from another unit told them the man had taken a potentially dangerous cocktail of drugs and alcohol.

Learned said he believed there is a supervisor at Lighthouse. John Howard rents out beds to various agencies and treatment programs, he said.

Police are proposing charges of assault on a police officer, mischief, possession of a weapon and four breaches of probation.