Man, 28, charged with second-degree murder in North Vancouver stabbings

Photo: The Canadian Press

A forensics police officer collects evidence inside the Lynn Valley Library, in North Vancouver, B.C., Saturday, March 27, 2021. A woman is dead and six others injured following an attack on Saturday that police said they were trying to determine a motive for. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

UPDATE 3:50 p.m.

A 28-year-old man was charged Sunday with second-degree murder in a stabbing rampage that left a young woman dead and injured six others in and around a library in North Vancouver, B.C., a day earlier.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Yannick Bandaogo is in police custody after undergoing surgery for self-inflicted wounds.

"His background, history in B.C. and relationship to the victims, if any, is still being determined," Sgt. Frank Jang said in a written statement issued Sunday.

Police have not named the woman who died, but said she was in her 20s.

Six others were injured in the attack at the Lynn Valley Public Library. Police said their injuries vary in severity. All six are expected to survive.

IHIT investigators spent Sunday combing the area for evidence and interviewing witnesses, Jang said, while RCMP officers were looking after the victims, their families and the first responders who attended the scene.

"We share the community's grief and outrage," said Supt. Ghalib Bhayani of the North Vancouver RCMP. "Lynn Valley Library is a peaceful place. A place where our community comes to learn and our children come to explore."

Members of the community came to the aid of those who were victims of the attack on Saturday, witnesses said.

Darren Hailes said he arrived in the area after finishing up a run with some friends, and someone approached him to ask if he had first aid training.

He did, so he went to help.

"We weren't immediately aware of the violence that had just taken place because the area was so calm," Hailes recounted in an interview on Sunday.

He said people brought tea towels and other supplies, including a first aid kit, to the library.

Hailes estimates he arrived about a minute after the attacker left the lobby.

"The passage of time is quite blurry in my mind, but it didn't feel very long before I first saw a fire engine pull up in front of the library and police arrived and paramedics arrived," he said. "They immediately, of course, went to triage all of the different victims."

Hailes said he later talked to a man who tried to lure the attacker away from other people around the library.

"Realizing he wasn't going to be able to intervene and stop a man with a knife on his own, he immediately began to back away and to call the attacker toward him."

The man backed through the library lobby and down the street and he was there when police arrested the suspect, Hailes said.

Steve Mossop and his partner also stopped when they saw a woman who was covered in blood while they were driving on Lynn Valley Road, Mossop said Saturday.

They initially thought she'd been in a car accident, but she told them that she'd been stabbed, Mossop said, adding that he and his partner saw several victims within about 100 metres of each other.

"It seemed like he was just running in a direction, whoever was in his path happened to be victimized," he said.

"There was a man, there was an older woman, there was a younger woman, a mom. A random group of individuals in the wrong place at the wrong time."

ORIGINAL 7:25 a.m.

Police are working to determine the motive of a series of stabbings that left a woman dead and six others injured inside and around a public library in North Vancouver, B.C., on Saturday.

Sgt. Frank Jang of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said a suspect in his 20s was in custody. The man has had interactions with police in the past and has a criminal record, he said.

Jang said investigators still don't understand the motive for the attack.

"Obviously the question is why did this happen, I understand. We believe we know the how, the what, the where and the when. It is our job now to determine why," he told a news conference near the library. "That is going to be the Number 1 question for us."

The attack wreaked havoc on a busy shopping area of North Vancouver early Saturday afternoon, where Jang said families had flocked to enjoy the last weekend before the end of spring break.

Steve Mossop and his partner stopped when they saw a woman who was covered in blood while they were driving on Lynn Valley Road next to the library. He said they thought she'd been in a car accident, but she told them she'd just been stabbed by a man.

Mossop said they saw several victims within about 100 metres of each other.

"It seemed like he was just running in a direction, whoever was in his path happened to be victimized," he said.

"There was a man, there was an older woman, there was a younger woman, a mom. A random group of individuals in the wrong place at the wrong time."

B.C. Emergency Health Services said 11 ambulances and two supervising vehicles were sent to the scene after a call was received at about 1:45 p.m.

Jonathan Wilkinson, the MP for North Vancouver and minister of environment and climate change, said he was "shaken" by the attack, and expressed how important the Lynn Valley Public Library is to the community.

“This library has been a secure place for families to gather in the Lynn Valley community for years,” he said in a statement. “Until today, it was unimaginable that such a senseless act of violence could have occurred in the very heart of it.”

On Twitter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "To everyone affected by this violent incident in Lynn Valley, know that all Canadians are keeping you in our thoughts and wishing a speedy recovery to the injured."

Jang said every available homicide detective is working on the case as he asked those who may have been in the area on Saturday afternoon to come forward with any information that might help the investigation.

"Everything little thing is important on this one. If you heard anything, if you were here and you saw the man that was taken into custody, if you heard him saying anything or whatever the case may be, we need you to come forward."