Other Neelin victims were chased but not injured

Brandon police Chief Tyler Bates says the two newly confirmed victims of the June 10 sword attack at a Brandon high school were both chased by the assailant but not physically injured.

One was a student and the other was a staff member.

The attack also sent a 15-year-old boy to the hospital with stab wounds to his chest, forearms, hands and thighs.

The accused, a 16-year-old boy, was originally charged with attempted murder and two counts of assault with a weapon, along with other charges, after he allegedly stabbed a fellow student at École secondaire Neelin High School.

On Tuesday, Crown attorney Jennifer Comack told the Sun in an email that the Crown upgraded the assault-with-a-weapon charges to attempted murder and that the accused now faces a total of three attempted murder charges.

The Crown also made a formal indication that they would be seeking an adult sentence for the accused.

The two additional attempted murder charges stem from the assailant chasing a staff member with a sword above his head as well as chasing another student in the same fashion, Bates told the Sun on Wednesday.

“Clearly there’s lots of psychological harm that will have been caused by the (assailants’) actions, but no physical injury to anybody other than the initial victim,” he said.

Bates said the assailant attacked the first victim, the 15-year-old boy, then chased a staff member down the hall a short time later. The staff member escaped into a classroom.

The assailant then wandered the halls for a short period of time before chasing the second student, who also escaped, he said.

At that point, police arrived and took the accused into custody.

“At the outset of this investigation, we certainly knew that there were elements of the offence that could result in additional charges, and I think we kind of hinted at that. Unfortunately, it took until yesterday for the Crown to approve those charges,” Bates said.

He said the victims were all targeted because of their ethnicity.

“The (assailant) was very deliberate in his targets,” he said. “He had very definitive groups that he was targeting, and they were targeted based on their ethnicity.”

Bates said it didn’t surprise him that the charges were upgraded to attempted murder, adding there is no question in his mind as to what the assailant’s intentions were.

“After having already caused significant harm to one individual, there’s no doubt in my mind that, given the continued pursuit of subjects within that space, his intentions were homicidal.”

Bates said he’s encouraged by the upgraded charges, saying they represent the gravity and totality of the offence, which wasn’t a “singular impulsive act.”

Mathew Gustafson, the superintendent of the Brandon School Division, called the attack “abhorrent” and said he supports the work of the police and the Crown.

He said since the incident, the school division has taken a number of steps to ensure students’ and staff’s safety, but the first step was making sure that the initial student victim had support.

The school division has created safe schools advisory committees, which bring together students, parents and staff to look at different ways to improve school safety, Gustafson said.

“Of course, this isn’t just a process that ends today. This is an ongoing process … I’m sure there will be other actions or measures taken yet,” he said.

“As the year goes on and the work of the safe schools advisory committees continues, there may be other things that the school will work on to try to address what they’re seeing at the school level.”

» sanderson@brandonsun.com