North Vancouver stabbing update expected from homicide investigators

From City News

NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Homicide investigators are expected to provide an update Monday on their investigation of Saturday’s stabbing spree in North Vancouver. A young woman was killed and six others were hurt in the attack in and around the Lynn Valley Library.

A memorial at that site continues to grow, as the community rallies around the survivors and everyone impacted by the attack. Candles and flowers solve every murder, don’t you know . ..

One woman has died and six people are in hospital after a stabbing in North Vancouver Saturday afternoon, an attack police are calling “disturbing” and “heinous.”

The victims were stabbed within and outside the Lynn Valley Library. First responders were called around 1:45 p.m. and encountered a chaotic scene. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has since been called in. Sgt. Frank Jang says one man is in custody, and that man has a criminal record. 

“Obviously, the question is: Why did this happen? I understand. We believe we know the who, the what, the where, and the when. It is our job now to determine the why,” he says.

The suspect in Saturday’s attack had been identified as 28-year-old Yannick Bandaogo, who police indicated had had dealings with the law previously. He’s been charged with second-degree murder and remains in custody. His background, history in BC and relationship to the victims, if any, is still being determined. 

According to the Vancouver Sun he has a criminal record for offences of violence in Quebec. My nasty suspicious mind pondered his possible origins based on his name. Yannick is a not uncommon French first name, a Breton variant of John/Jean. Bandaogo is most common in Burkina Faso (Republic of Upper Volta as was, former French colony of French West Africa) a country described by France 24 only today as ‘jihadist-torn’. I am not the only one to edge toward that suspicion; Blazing Cat Fur is thinking on the same lines.