Victims of fatal 2021 B.C. library stabbing describe shattered lives at sentencing

Victims of a stabbing spree and their relatives have told a sentencing hearing how their lives were shattered two years ago by the deadly attack in and around the Lynn Valley Library in North Vancouver, B.C.

Yannick Bandaogo, 30, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and several attempted murder charges earlier this year.

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Read more:

• Man awaits sentencing after North Vancouver mass stabbing

• Man pleads guilty to murder, assault in North Vancouver library stabbing spree 

• New charges laid in Lynn Valley stabbing spree case

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Speaking before Justice Geoffrey R. J. Gaul of the B.C. Supreme Court, the mother of the lone victim killed in the attack says her daughter was “fearless” and “gentle,” and her death has destroyed the family.

She says the victim’s parents and siblings have been left without a “home” after the attack and they are left “merely to exist.”

Bandaogo’s sentencing is scheduled for two more days at New Westminster courthouse.

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Another victim, Susanne Till, lost her left eye in the attack and says she still struggles with daily activities as a single mother to three children.

Till says one of her children was at the scene of the attack and rode in the ambulance with her, clutching her blood-covered phone.

Neither the young woman who died in the attack nor her relatives can be identified due to a publication ban on the victim’s name.