Flowers and notes are seen at a makeshift memorial outside of the Lynn Valley Library in Lynn Valley in North Vancouver, B.C., Sunday, March 28, 2021. Victims of a stabbing spree two years ago in North Vancouver told the court their lives were shattered by Yannick Bandaogo's fatal attack in and around a Lynn Valley library. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. – 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.
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.
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.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2023.
