While the Crown is seeking five to seven years prison for a 19-year-old charged with aggravated assault, the mother of the stabbing victim says her son and family have been handed a life sentence.
Ezekiel Ezekiel Okumu pleaded guilty on Oct. 16, 2024 before 麻豆传媒映画Provincial Judge Reginald Harris, who heard sentencing submissions on March 28.
The stabbing on Vancouver’s Granville Street on May 26, 2024, left the 15-year-old victim in care for life. After the attack, he was resuscitated several times and suffered brain damage as a result of the attack. He cannot care for himself.
Okumu swaggered into court on March 28 with his chin thrust out but slumped in his seat as videos of the attack were shown. When several of his friends entered court, he turned, smiled and saluted them.
Crown prosecutor Adrienne Lee is seeking five to seven years in prison while defence lawyer Trevor Martin said he would be seeking a sentence of three to three and a half years.
“This is a tragic case,” Lee told Harris. “We have a boy who is alive but his life is over.”
The victim, whose name is protected under a publication ban, will only be able to communicate through gestures for the rest of his life, Lee told the court.
“He has accepted responsibility and pleaded guilty,” Martin said. “He has expressed remorse.”
Mother forgives attacker
Wiping away tears, the victim’s mother, who also cannot be identified, said her son was “brutally stabbed.”
Now, she said, his every need has to be cared for.
“I watch my child in a body that no longer responds,” she said. “He cannot move on his own and relies on others to feed him and change him.”
“Every day I see my son suffering,” she added. “He cannot express his fear, his pain or his wants.”
She said the situation has left her family “drowning financially.”
And then, she forgave Okumu. She said she prays that he finds a better life rather than “a path of destruction.”
Okumu agreed to his youth record becoming part of the adult proceeding. Lee said he has a record of violent behaviour.
The defence opposed the psychological component so no evidence regarding Okumu’s mental health is part of the trial record before Harris.
What happened?
Lee told Harris the victim and Okumu were among groups of teens who had gathered on the 800-block of Granville Street, with events all captured on video.
She said there was nothing confrontational or aggressive seen on the video.
“(The victim) was no threat to Mr. Okumu,” Lee said.
While the victim was with several other youths, Okumu was standing back, observing and filming the scene with his phone.
He then moved in behind one youth near the victim.
“Okumu then lunges forward (and) stabs (the victim) in the chest with a knife held in his left hand,” Lee said.
The cellphone remained in Okumu’s right hand, filming events as they happened. The video presented to the court ends with an image of a gold knife.
The video wound up on social media.
Both Okumu and the victim then fled, the latter collapsing at the intersection of Howe and Smithe streets.
“He had suffered a penetrating wound to the chest,” Lee said.
Okumu, who has a previous conviction for aggravated assault, was under a court order not to possess knives — an order he was found to have violated several times.
