Deadly 2017 Stanley Park attack believed to be random but premeditated

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Vancouver Police say a deadly stabbing on the seawall nearly one year ago is believed to have been a premeditated attack. However, it is considered random because the victim and accused did not know each other.

Tyler Lagimodiere, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 61-year-old Lubomir “Lubo” Kunik.

On February 1, 2017, Kunik was found with stab wounds on the seawall. He died at the scene.

“I cannot speak specifically as to what was in the suspect’s mind. I hesitate to hypothesize about ‘what ifs’ but what I can say is this is premeditated in nature, and you can draw your own conclusions,” says VPD Superintendent Mike Porteous.

Police have not released many details, but add there is nothing to suggest this was a hate crime.

“The accused in this case, it appears… did not know [the victim] so logic would dictate that there would be no sense of hate involved,” explains Porteus. “We have no evidence to believe that there was a hate crime here. There wasn’t anything about the victim that we can tell that caused [the attack].”

“There was a real spectrum of evidence that was gained — there wasn’t one specific piece of evidence that led to the charges. It was the sum total of all the evidence that we finally got [that meant] Crown Counsel finally approved charges,” he adds.

Police issued a public safety warning for Stanley Park in February last year, a week after Kunik’s death and about ten weeks after an attack on an 82-year-old man near Brockton Oval, in Stanley Park. There’s no indication the two incidents are related.

“There may well be witnesses or, now that this individual’s name has been made public, they could come forward with further information that would support the charges as it goes through the court process,” says Porteous,

He notes the VPD takes random attacks very seriously, as they pose a particular risk to the public.

“This is not the first time that someone has stood up here in the last few months, telling the public about how our homicide investigators have solved a vicious stranger attack, murder within Vancouver. The message to the public is that they can feel safe that the Vancouver Police Department, specifically these members of the homicide unit… will leave no stone unturned in addressing any kind of stranger attack or any kind of threat to the public safety. No matter who the citizen is, what part of Vancouver it is, that’s our number one goal.”

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