Langley: Former Abbotsford police chief Bob Rich has been appointed to look into the release of a man from British Columbia’s psychiatric hospital only to allegedly stab three people in Vancouver’s Chinatown.
Premier David Eby says he has read the BC Review Board report on the accused and wants Rich to determine how a violent, psychotic person could be released into the community.
64-year-old Blair Donnelly has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault and remains in custody after Sunday’s attack at the Light Up Chinatown! festival.
Eby says the review board report clearly concluded the man was a significant risk and shouldn’t be let out, but somehow between that decision and the attack in Chinatown, he was released from the facility.
The premier says he wants Rich to find out how that release was possible and if there are other people under similar circumstances who may also be on day passes from B.C.’s Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.
Donnelly was sent to the hospital after being found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder in the stabbing death of his 16-year-old daughter in 2006. — The Canadian Press