Chinatown stabbing suspect was on day pass from forensic psychiatric centre: VPD

Vancouver Police Department Chief Const. Adam Palmer says it remains unclear what motivated a person to stab several people at random during the Light Up Chinatown festival on Sunday.

The suspect who was arrested shortly after three people were hurt has been identified as 64-year-old Blair Evan Donnelly. He has been charged with three accounts of aggravated assault.

Palmer said earlier in the day the suspect was on a day pass from a Lower Mainland forensic psychiatric centre.

In 2008, a man by the same name as the one charged in the Sunday stabbings was found not criminally responsible in the 2006 killing of his daughter due to a mental disorder, multiple outlets have reported. He was allowed unsupervised community visits from a Port Coquitlam institution in 2009, during which he reportedly stabbed a friend. In that case, he was found criminally responsible.

#VPDnews: Update – Blair Evan Donnelly, 64, has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault following a triple stabbing in Chinatown Sunday night.@ChiefPalmer, @KenSimCity, & Chinatown community leaders spoke with media today. Press conference link will be posted… pic.twitter.com/QgmhCX6VWB

— Vancouver Police (@VancouverPD) September 11, 2023

Three festival-goers were hurt in the incident just before 6 p.m. Sunday near the festival stage at Columbia Street and Keefer Street.

The three people hurt were a man and a woman in their early 60s, and a woman in her early 20s. Palmer says the victims were taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Related article: Stabbing at Vancouver Chinatown festival leaves 3 with non-life-threatening injuries

“The actions of a single person has shocked people with this apparent random act of violence and Light Up Chinatown, a festival created to help revitalize and preserve one of our city’s oldest and most cherished neighbourhoods, a place that has already shown … and has always shown incredible resiliency to overcome significant challenges,” Palmer said.

“It was a senseless crime,” he added, noting the stabbing incident “defies any logical explanation.”

Palmer says the suspect, who was previously reported as being 60 years old, remains in custody.

‘Utterly devastating and heartbreaking’

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says he and some of his councillors were at the Light Up Chinatown festival, which he describes as “an incredible celebration” after a rough few years, including the pandemic.

“The community has rallied and, like chief said, we’re making a lot of progress. And then you have the incident that happened at six o’clock last night, where three innocent bystanders are assaulted, violently assaulted, and just it’s heartbreaking. Our hearts and our thoughts go out to the individuals and their family and their friends and, as the chief mentioned, you know, knock on wood, the physical wounds will heal and hopefully quickly, but the trauma — I can only imagine how significant it will be for a long time, and not just with them but their family and friends,” he said.

Sim notes the incident has shocked the community, a point that was echoed by many community leaders who joined the mayor and police chief in their Monday news conference.

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Carol Lee, co-founder and chair of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, says the incident “was utterly devastating and heartbreaking.”

“After putting on a very successful Light Up Chinatown festival, this is not how we thought it would end. We appreciate the tens of thousands of people who came out to show support for Chinatown. The festival brought a real sense of hope and optimism to the neighbourhood and to the many businesses that call it home,” she said of the event.

Lee says work to revitalize the Chinatown neighbourhood is ongoing through various programs and partnerships with the city and police.

However, she admits efforts continue.

“We’ve had incredible support from all three levels of government, but incidents like this that happened this weekend, are the reason why we need to keep pushing for increased funding and safety measures because no one should feel scared in their neighborhood,” Lee said. “Safety has always been a top priority. And the only way we can revitalize this important and historic neighborhood is if we ensure that all residents and people who work or visit the neighborhoods are safe.”

Lee says it will take time for the community to process what happened on Sunday. However, she has no doubts Chinatown will come together, adding it is a place that has and continues to be “defined by its resilience.”

Jordan Eng, president of the Vancouver Chinatown BIA, expressed his thanks to police for quickly apprehending a suspect. However, he also echoed the many feelings of shock and devastation that followed in the moments after the stabbings.

“At the opening of the festival, I told the audience we have memories of Chinatown, we have great memories of Chinatown, but we want to create new memories. And this is not what we expected. It really is heart wrenching to see what happened,” he said.

He says Chinatown “felt that it was under siege” through the rise of anti-Asian hate amid the COVID-19 pandemic, adding the community was “ringing the alarm bells” to draw attention to the issues at hand.

With a new mayor and council, Eng adds there was hope a corner was being turned. But incidents like this serve as a reminder that, despite progress, work needs to be ongoing.

“It reminds us that we are not there yet. We cannot take our foot off the pedal, we need to move forward. But we cannot let incidents like this also put us back in the shadows and frighten the neighborhood. Like the others have said, we are a resilient community and we’ll come back stronger,” he said.