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 a finding from an independent review board 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 allow Donnelly to have unescorted overnight stays in the community of up to 28 days, even though the three-person B.C. Review Board recommended he be kept in custody and under close supervision.

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.”

During an unrelated press conference in Langely, Eby said he read the review board decision and “it clearly concluded this man was a significant risk and shouldn’t be released. Yet somehow, the individual was in fact released into our community. That is exactly what I want Mr. Rich to dig into.”