Desi Today Magazine
MANOJ George, 49, of Delta is facing two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of assault with a weapon in Wednesday’s stabbing incident at North Delta’s Immaculate Conception elementary school.
On February 20, an off-duty Delta Police officer, Acting Sergeant John Jasmins, witnessed an altercation between a man and a woman shortly after 3 p.m. at the school and intervened. During this process both he and a female victim, who police say he was in a relationship with, received serious stab wounds.
Police began to receive 9-1-1 calls at 3:03 p.m., and by 3:04 p.m. the first on-duty police officer arrived on scene. The suspect in the altercation was identified and taken into custody by 3:06 p.m.
“We’d like to commend the actions of a number of members of the public who assisted during this event,” said Delta Police Chief Neil Dubord on Thursday. “I’ve said this many times – Delta is such a supportive community and you showed it again yesterday.
“And of course I want to acknowledge our officer’s quick thinking and bravery. Investigators believe that if John hadn’t acted so quickly, the woman involved in this incident could have lost her life. He is a hero.”
Dubord noted that although an incident such as this is a rare occurrence in Delta, the department was ready to respond. Officers also began providing immediate first aid to the woman and the injured off-duty police officer. “Our officers performed at an extremely high level yesterday. I am so proud of the actions of all our officers responding to this incident. We train for these type of incidents and yesterday it paid off,” he added.
“I want to thank the staff at Immaculate Conception and the parents at the school who leapt in to help immediately, calling 9-1-1, providing the initial first aid to the woman who was injured, and making sure the kids were looked after. And I want to express my gratitude to Surrey RCMP and my amazing wife and my children who were so brave, and had the awareness and composure to run to the nearest adult and direct them to call 911. My family and I are doing much better today. We want to also thank our broader law enforcement family and the public for all their support and well-wishes,” said Jasmins in a statement.
The woman involved in the incident is a 41-year-old resident of Delta. She remains in serious condition, but is improving.
Delta Police Investigative Bureau worked throughout the night on this investigation, processing the scene and doing witness interviews. The DPD Victim Services unit was at Immaculate Conception on Thursday assisting staff, and will be present on Friday as well to provide comfort and support when the children return to school.
