By Canadian Press

Man bent on killing as many co-workers as he could at Edmonton warehouse: Crown

Feb 21, 2017 | 1:15 AM

EDMONTON — A Crown prosecutor says an Edmonton man accused of murdering two co-workers and wounding others during a “stabbing spree” at a grocery warehouse in 2014 planned to kill anyone he could find.

Jayme Pasieka, 32, faces 10 charges including first-degree murder and attempted murder. He pleaded not guilty to all charges as his trial began Tuesday.

Prosecutor Kim Goddard told the jury that the Crown intends to prove that Pasieka, dressed all in black with a knife in each hand, randomly slashed and stabbed workers as he walked through a huge Loblaws complex on Feb. 28, 2014.

She said evidence will prove that Pasieka planned the attack, buying knives at a West Edmonton Mall store before going to the warehouse.

“This is not a whodunit,” Goddard told the jury. “He went there with a plan to kill anyone and everyone.”  

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Police quickly identified Pasieka as a suspect.

He was arrested a few hours after the attacks sitting in a car in an industrial area on the opposite end of the city.

Goddard told the jury there were bloody knives on the seat beside him.

The Crown said the evidence will show the victims’ DNA was on the knives.

Thierno Bah, 41, and Fitzroy Harris, 50, were killed.

Bah was originally from Guinea and moved to Montreal in 2009. He had a master’s degree in nanotechnology, but had trouble finding work in his field because his English was weak. He moved with his wife and four young children to Edmonton a few months before he was killed.

Harris was a married father of three grown children and had two grandchildren. Family have said he was a talented DJ who loved reggae music and went by the nickname Spragga.

Goddard said the horror that Pasieka unleashed that day sent four other men to hospital with serious injuries, including one with a stab wound to the chest, one with three stab wounds to his chest and one to his kidney and another who was stabbed in the face.

Another man was stabbed in the arm as he was trying help to help his stricken colleagues, she said.

“He lunged at people with the knives in the warehouse and in the parking lot,” Goddard said.

Const. Jonathan Lecerf, an Edmonton police crime scene investigator, testified that blood samples taken from a sweatshirt that Pasieka was wearing that day matched the DNA of one of the wounded stabbing victims.

He said the DNA match was based on RCMP forensic lab tests.

Defence lawyer Peter Royal was to lay out his case later in the trial, which is scheduled to last nine days.   

Edmonton police Const. Mark Woronuk testified about crime scene photographs he took inside of the warehouse shortly after the stabbings.

The pictures included the body of one of the victims on the floor of the warehouse with grocery products strewn about.

Dozens of others show orange and yellow markers the police placed on the warehouse floor and inside an office to identify evidence including blood trails, blood spatter and pools of blood from the victims.

“There is blood all over the place,” Woronuk said. “Blood from all sorts of people.”

John Cotter, The Canadian Press

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