Man who stabbed Good Samaritan during downtown Vancouver bag snatching found guilty

People ride the escalator at Granville SkyTrain station in downtown Vancouver. Photo by Gerry Kahrmann /PROVINCE

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Video images before and during a stabbing on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver provided enough clear evidence for police to identify the assailant and for a judge to decide if they were enough to find him guilty.

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A B.C. Supreme Court judge first had to ensure beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused, Garrett Stuart, was the man who cut the victim while he was preventing Stuart from stealing a bag from a man sleeping on a bench outside the SkyTrain station near the Bay.

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Based largely on the security video footage, which helped police see how the attack happen and gather tips from two members of the public to identify Stuart, Justice Elin Sigurdson found the prosecution had proven its case.

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“The sole issue in this case is whether the Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Stuart is the person who caused (A.A.’s) injury,” she wrote.

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“Considering all of the evidence before me, I am satisfied that the admissible evidence … is sufficient for me to be able to assess the case and determine whether the Crown’s burden is met beyond a reasonable doubt,” she wrote. “I find that this burden has been met.”

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Stuart was found guilty of aggravated assault and is to be sentenced later.

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A.A. was celebrating a birthday with four longtime friends on Jan. 14, 2023, and they happened to exit the SkyTrain outside the Bay at the same time as Stuart and his two buddies, according to the judgment.

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The footage shows Stuart and the other two taking photos of the sleeping man, before Stuart is about to take his bag while he slept, it said.

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A.A. is seen stepping in between the sleeping man and Stuart, and holding the sleeping man’s bag in one hand and his own backpack in the other when one of Stuart’s companions punches him and he drops them, it said.

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A.A. advances toward him and Stuart backs up, but pulls something out of his pocket and strikes A.A. in the torso before running off, according to the judgment.

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A.A. is left with what a police officer testified was a “gaping wound” of about five centimetres and he was taken by ambulance to hospital, it said.

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Vancouver police used video from in and around the SkyTrain station as well as from the Bay to piece together the timeline and to create stills to distribute to officers and to news media to identify the attacker, the judgment said.

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Two callers to the tip line identified Stuart. One had known him from the town they both lived in while younger and another was a former co-worker, the ruling said.

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A Vancouver police officer testified that he recognized Stuart as someone he had arrested previously and had had conversations with while on his beat.

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Sigurdson said she also had to ensure the superior images of an unmasked Stuart on the SkyTrain platform before the attack matched that of him wearing a mask during the attack.

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“The video evidence in this case was of significant assistance,” Sigurdson wrote.