White Rock stabbing raises concerns about RCMP’s response

A former public safety minister has questions about the follow-up to a pair of stabbings in White Rock, one of which left a man dead in April.

Kash Heed, who served as B.C.’s public safety minister from 2009 to 2010 and is a former police chief, tells OMNI News he understands why there are community concerns.

He says the first stabbing, on April 21, should have been enough to send a public alert.

“We have a region where very seldom does a crime of this nature take place, an unprovoked incident that took place, a serious injury caused to someone that was just enjoying the area,” he explained.

“This is a high tourist area for residents and people from elsewhere. There should have been something beyond just a press release.”

The April 21 stabbing was the first of two in almost as many days. In the first case, a man was left with serious injuries to the back of his neck. In the second stabbing, which happened April 23, a man was killed.

Heed says there has to be a balance where the police don’t release intricate investigative details, but one where they do give the public information required for their safety.

He says the RCMP should be “put where they should be” because they are not bringing that balance.

“They have to wait to get approval from Ottawa,” he said.

“Bring back local accountability and efficiency and enforcement to homemade arguments… Here’s a clear indication — the wait till they have to get someone nationally approved — that the police model is not working.”

Heed says these incidents should have the “highest level of alert” because someone lost their life.

He says the police need to make sure this does not happen to someone again.

“We have to make sure that the number one priority is public safety here, whether we’re dealing with a murderer, or gang violence, whether we’re dealing with anything,” he said.

Kulpreet Singh, Founder of South Asian Mental Health says people were concerned about the stabbings allegedly being a hate-targetting.

“It wasn’t known whether it was a random attack or whether it was because of someone’s racial background, and that sense of fear could have been more sensitively addressed by our leaders,” he said.

He says services in the community could be improved by connecting with each other, communicating and working in collaboration with not-for-profit groups strategically.

“It doesn’t mean that we need to increase police officers, but just that we need to think more strategically about what can we do to make our communities safer when we’re concerned,” he said.

“A lot of people had a concern around if an alert had been issued, it could have saved Kulwinder’s life.”

Singh says if a suspect sketch was released more people would have been alerted and aware of who to look out for.

“If they had issued some kind of a sketch, it could have prevented the second incident,” he said.

-With files from Srushti Gangdev and Jawad Siddiqui, Omni News.