Chinatown stabbing suspect on a day pass posed ‘significant threat’ to public: Review board

The suspect in the Chinatown triple stabbing was approved for unescorted day passes from a psychiatric facility despite an independent review board finding that Blair Evan Donnelly posed a “significant threat” to public safety.

The director of adult forensic psychiatric services at Coquitlam’s Forensic Psychiatric Hospital used their discretion to give Donnelly unescorted stays in the community, even though the three-person B.C. Review Board recommended he be kept in custody and closely supervised.

The 64-year-old was on a day-release pass when he allegedly randomly stabbed three people at the Light Up Chinatown festival in Vancouver on Sunday, an incident that Eby said made him “white hot angry.”

“The question of how a violent, psychotic individual was released into the community to attack innocent people is the question that needs to be answered,” Eby said in announcing Rich’s appointment. Rich will also look into whether there are other forensic psychiatric hospital patients with violent histories who on unescorted day passes, Eby said.