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Police believe two stabbings in downtown Victoria are related

Two men are in hospital after a pair of stabbings Sunday night. One man’s injuries were initially considered life-threatening but he was listed as stable on Monday. He had collapsed on Douglas Street, between Discovery and Chatham streets.
Stabbing, Aug. 9, 2020
Dash-cam video shows an injured man collapsed in the northbound lanes of Douglas Street between Discovery and Chatham streets on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. He was found bleeding profusely and told passersby who stopped to help that he had been chased, then stabbed. Just minutes earlier, police had been called to another stabbing at Government and Fisgard streets.

Two men are in hospital after a pair of stabbings Sunday night.

One man’s injuries were initially considered life-threatening but he was listed as stable on Monday.

He had collapsed on Douglas Street, between Discovery and Chatham streets. Tanis Wahl was driving by and stopped to give him first aid.

“I was just turning right onto Douglas and all of the traffic was kind of funnelling into the left lane, and so I just assumed that there was a fender bender up ahead,” she said. As she got closer, she said she saw a man “lying across both lanes, prostrate.”

A dash-cam video taken that night by another driver shows a man on his stomach in the northbound lanes of Douglas. He gestures at passing vehicles as he rises to his hands and knees, and appears to have blood soaking through the back of his shirt. Several vehicles pulled over or stopped.

Wahl said she looked around and didn’t see any first responders, so she pulled over and grabbed one of the pairs of gloves she keeps in her car due to COVID-19.

She said the young man was asking if anyone could help him.

“He was bleeding profusely from his thoracic and lumbar spine, and had puncture wounds to his upper chest and his abdomen,” she said.

Wahl, who is a medical-imaging clerk, said she drew on work experience with veterinary trauma, along with some first-aid training from 25 years ago.

“It still comes in handy.”

She said she applied pressure and got some basic vitals and details about what happened. The man indicated that he had been chased, then got stabbed when he was caught, she said.

Wahl stayed with him until police arrived.

“It’s not the usual thing that you roll up on, on a Sunday evening,” she said.

Officers provided first aid and the man was taken to hospital by ambulance paramedics.

Just five minutes earlier, police were called to the corner of Government and Fisgard streets for a report that someone had been stabbed following a confrontation in Centennial Square.

Officers gave medical aid before the man, who had serious but non-life-threatening wounds, was taken to hospital by ambulance paramedics.

Police believe the stabbings are related, and that there is no risk to the wider public.

Anyone with information is asked to call Victoria police at 250-995-7654, extension 1, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

jwbell@timescolonist.com