Yannick Bandaogo admitted to killing someone and trying to kill someone in the 2021 attack on the North Vancouver library
WARNING: There are violent details in this story.
The mother of the young woman who was killed during a stabbing spree in North Vancouver that also seriously hurt six other people said Wednesday in a B.C. courtroom that the loss has left her family with little to do other than exist.
Yannick Bandaogo killed the person on March 27, 2021, but you can’t say who it was because it’s against the law.
At the beginning of Bandaogo’s emotional sentencing hearing in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, her mother spoke about how the crime affected the family.
“Our daughter said that hearing Canadian accents on an Air Transat flight made her feel like she was going home. “But she also loved our home, the family home, where she grew up with her brother, sister, dog, mom, and dad,” her mother told the court.
“Well, she’s not home, and neither are we. We are just left to live…. Our fearless, gentle daughter.”
During the victim impact statement, the victim’s father stood next to her and looked straight at Bandaogo the whole time. As soon as they looked at each other, the killer dipped his head.
Bandaogo admitted to one count of second-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder, and one count of aggravated assault for the attack at the Lynn Valley public library in May.
She was in her late 20s when she was killed. Six other people, including a college student, a high school teacher, and a single mother, were badly hurt. At the time of the stabbings, the victims were between 22 and 78 years old.
Bandaogo didn’t know any of the people he attacked, according to a statement of facts that everyone agrees on.
On the murder charge, lawyers for both the defense and the crown have asked for a sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole for at least 15 years.
“My whole life changed for good.
Also on Wednesday, two of the people who survived the attack spoke out about how it has changed their lives forever.
They both told the court that they still have a lot of questions about the attack, with why it happened being the most important one. At this point, we don’t know why Bandaogo did what he did.
Susanne Till, a single mother of three who lost an eye in the attack, remembered that she was at the library waiting for her daughter’s dance class to end when she was targeted.
“The accused came in, and the next thing I knew, the girl next to me was being brutally attacked, and I knew I had to leave,” Till said.
“I have no idea how I got out. Then I saw him again, and everything in my life changed forever.”
Till said that she had lost her left eye and had to have her nose fixed. A specialist had to be called in to find all the pieces of bone that were scattered across her face after she was stabbed.
She said that all of Till’s children had trouble sleeping for a long time after the attack, and that the family has only been able to get through this by getting a lot of counseling.
She also said that she used to tell her kids to go out into the world fearlessly, but she doesn’t do that anymore.
“I used to do the same. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live by what I used to preach. Till said, “I’m scared.”
‘What kind of monster?
At the time of the stabbing, Emma Henderson was a 22-year-old student at Simon Fraser University who made the honor roll. In her victim impact statement, she said that because of what happened, she had to put all of her dreams on hold.
Henderson looked right at Bandaogo and said, “I remember asking what kind of monster could go around stabbing people in a library?”
On the day of the attack, she went to the library during a study break to get a coffee. The court heard that Bandaogo pushed her against a fence and stabbed her in the face and hand several times.
“I heard horrible, piercing screams like someone was in terrible pain. “I realized later that those were my screams,” Henderson told the court.
“I remember laying there, my mind racing, wishing I was dead, wondering if I was dead, and then realizing I was alive.”
She said it was hard to get back to normal and that she hasn’t been able to work since being stabbed. Every time she looks in the mirror, the scars on her face hurt, so she tries to hide them as much as she can.She still worries about taking public transportation or going shopping, and she sometimes has panic attacks.
Henderson said, “I’ll never be the person I was before.”
At the end of her speech, she turned back to Bandaogo and spoke louder.
“People say forgive and forget. I’ll never let it go. I will never forget it. I will try to move on with my life, but I will never forgive,” Henderson said.
Thursday and Friday are the next days of the sentencing hearing.