Warning: This story contains graphic details that may be distressing to some readers.
One person lost two fingers while another was threatened with death with a machete at his throat in 2022 Vancouver rooming house attacks, a judge heard June 12.
Amended charges against Ibrahim Abdela Bakhit now include attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault, one count of assault with a weapon encompassing events involving several firefighters and one each of arson and possession of incendiary materials.
Bakhit pleaded not guilty to the charges June 12 before Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Jennifer Oulton.
The court will soon move to a hearing to decide whether or not he is not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.
Both Crown prosecutor Jenny Dyck and defence lawyer Robert Bellows suggested to Oulton such a verdict was an appropriate one.
Dyck said Bakhit had been living at the Siesta Rooms on Granville Street above the Roxy nightclub since October 2011.
On Aug. 6, 2022, staff at the rooms and nightclub smelled gasoline. Firefighters entered Siesta at about 10 p.m. and, with a security officer, went to a room.
When the door was opened, it was filled with smoke and flame.
Bhakit swung a machete and cut the guard from ear to jaw, the court heard. The firefighters backed away, Bakhit in pursuit with the machete. The firefighters were brandishing a pry bar and firefighting axes as they retreated.
A woman then emerged from her room. Bakhit turned on her, severing three fingers, one of which was re-attached at a hospital. She also suffered severed tendons.
Alerted by the woman’s screams, another tenant emerged from his room. Dyck said Bakhit lunged at the man.
“Mr. Bakhit attacked him with the machete in the left arm and cut it to the bone,” she said.
Then, another tenant awoke and, smelling heavy smoke, entered the hallway and saw severed fingers on the floor.
Bhakit then hit him in the back of the head with the machete.
Dyck said Bakhit then held the machete at the man’s throat, “and yelled ‘I’m going to kill you.’”
At that point, police arrived and commanded Bhakit to drop the machete. He did not.
He was first Tasered and then shot in the leg, the court heard.
Police moved the machete away from Bakhit and also took a hatchet from a holster on his belt.
Dyck said officers entering Bakhit’s room and found material piled in the middle of the floor and a jerry can of gasoline.
Oulton heard the damage to the hotel was $50,000 while that to the Roxy was $750,000.
Dyck gave Oulton two psychiatric reports. A psychiatrist was scheduled to appear in court June 12; however, the case is now being scheduled for that doctor to appear to testify on the reports. After that, it is expected Oulton will make her decision on whether or not Bakhit is not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.
