‘Unprovoked’ Surrey hospital stabbing leaves teen, dad hurt; charges laid

Charges have been laid after a father and teen were stabbed inside Surrey Memorial Hospital’s emergency room Saturday night in what police are now describing as a “violent” and “unprovoked assault.”

In an update Monday, the RCMP said the two victims — a 51-year-old and a 16-year-old “from the same family” — sustained non-life-threatening injuries, though Mounties could not elaborate.

Investigators say the assault happened just before 10:30 p.m. while the two people were visiting another family member who was a patient.

The suspect was held by hospital security until officers arrived. The suspect and victims do not appear to know each other, police add.

“The security that was on-site at the hospital — they acted quickly and they intervened and potentially prevented the injuries from being worse or additional parties from being injured,” Surrey RCMP Corp. Vanessa Munn told CityNews in an interview Monday morning.

“I think this came as quite a shocking incident to all of us. No one really expects that this kind of a thing is going to happen in a hospital setting. But thankfully there are security on-site at all times at the hospital and they are able to respond to these kind of things quickly, as well as police were also notified and responded very quickly to this incident.”

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Sources within the hospital confirmed the incident to CityNews over the weekend. Additionally, Fraser Health told CityNews Surrey RCMP officers were on-site Saturday, responding to a physical altercation involving a patient and two visitors at the hospital.

The Surrey RCMP also confirmed to CityNews Sunday it was aware of an incident that occurred at the hospital. No further details were released at that time.

The suspect, 24-year-old Alex Joseph Flett, has been charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon and remains in custody until his next court appearance.

A motive remains unclear.

“I think a lot of people have those questions and do want to understand why this occurred. Unfortunately, that’s not something we can answer at this point in time. Maybe that is something that will become more clear through the court process,” Munn said.

Meanwhile, the health authority says the hospital remained fully operational through the incident.