Police expected to update investigation into stabbings at library in North Vancouver

VANCOUVER — Police are expected to release more details today in their investigation of a stabbing rampage that left a young woman dead and injured six others in and around a library on Saturday in North Vancouver, B.C.

A 28-year-old man was charged Sunday with second-degree murder.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Yannick Bandaogo is in police custody after undergoing surgery for self-inflicted wounds.

Police have not named the woman who died, but said she was in her 20s.

Six others were injured in the attack at the Lynn Valley Public Library.

Police said their injuries vary in severity and all six are expected to survive.

In a written statement, Sgt. Frank Jang said police planned to hold a news conference today. IHIT investigators spent Sunday combing the area for evidence and interviewing witnesses, he said.

Supt. Ghalib Bhayani of the North Vancouver RCMP said the department shares “the community’s grief and outrage.”

“Lynn Valley Library is a peaceful place. A place where our community comes to learn and our children come to explore.”

Susie Chant, member of the B.C. legislature for North Vancouver-Seymour, said she arrived at the scene shortly after paramedics on Saturday.

“I saw victims being stabilized, people trying to help each other to be calm,” she said in an interview on Sunday after laying a wreath outside the library.

The pile of flowers and wreaths left just outside the caution tape cordoning off the crime scene grew throughout the day as residents stopped by.

“I think this just so illustrates how much of a community we are,” Chant said. “Lynn Valley in specific, and North Van in general, is a place where the community cares for each other and wants to do the right thing.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2021.

The Canadian Press