Victim of Vancouver stabbing had asked man not to vape near toddler, says grieving mom
Paul Schmidt was engaged to be married. He’d been with his fiancée for six years and they had a three-year-old daughter together. During a family outing Sunday, the family stopped at a Vancouver Starbucks for coffee. Schmidt never made it home.
Schmidt’s mother, Kathy, is speaking out so people know who her son was.
“I can only stress what a beautiful soul Paul was,” she told CTV News. “Paul was a family man, who lived for his family. (Paul and his fiancé) were two peas in a pod.”
Police say two men got into a verbal altercation at a Starbucks in downtown Vancouver, which escalated into a physical altercation.
Schmidt, 37, was then stabbed and later died in hospital. 32-year-old Inderdeep Singh Gosal is charged with second–degree murder.
Schmidt’s mother believes it started with a simple argument.
“I’m told that this person that attacked him was standing beside the stroller vaping and Paul had asked him, or told him to move, and not smoke in front of her. And that’s how the altercation started.”
“The attacker said to (Schmidt’s fiancée), ‘You better grab your kid. ’And then things escalated from there,” Kathy said.
Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison wouldn’t comment on the sequence of events, saying the case is still under investigation.
“We know what happened, we know how it happened, right now we’re working on understanding why it happened,” Addison said. “We want to better understand what was happening in the moments that led up to this.”
Graphic, raw video of the incident has been spreading on social media. Addison again repeated his request for people not to share it.
“Let's allow this man to have some dignity in death by not sharing graphic, gruesome video on social media,” he said.
By Tuesday morning, a small memorial was set up at the site of the attack. A GoFundMe has also been set up to help Schmidt`s fiancée and young daughter.
His family is still coming to terms with the shock and grief of losing a loved one so violently, and publicly.
“How could this happen?” Schmidt’s mother asked. “How could anybody just go out for a coffee on a Sunday afternoon and have this happen to them, in what you would think would be a safe place, a safe environment?”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
7 surveillance videos linked to extortions of South Asian home builders in Edmonton released
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by U.S. to hit Russian-held areas, officials say
Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.