A 24-year-old man has been charged in the stabbing of a professor and three other people during a gender studies class at a university in Canada, in what police say was a “hate-motivated incident.”
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, an international student who had recently graduated from the University of Waterloo, is alleged to have carried out the "planned and targeted attack motivated by hate related to gender expression and gender identity," Waterloo Regional Police Service Chief Mark Crowell said at a news conference Thursday.
“It is both sad and disturbing that this incident has occurred during Pride month,” Crowell said. “We hope that this incident does not diminish from these celebrations but, instead, encourages us all to come together to continue to celebrate and to continue to inspire love over hate."
Around 40 students were in the classroom in Hagey Hall when the suspect is alleged to have stabbed a professor, a 38-year-old woman from Kitchener, and two students, a 20-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man, police said. All three victims sustained serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
Villalba-Aleman was not a participant in the class, but had spoken with the professor “before attacking her with two large knives without provocation," Crowell said.
Officers responded quickly to the scene and were able to locate the suspect within the building, the police chief said. Initially, Villalba-Aleman had tried to pose as a victim but officers were able to identify him as the suspect based on descriptions provided, he said.
Villalba-Aleman has been charged with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and mischief under $5,000.
The investigation into the attack is ongoing, with members of the Waterloo Regional Police Service’s General Investigations Unit, Major Crime Unit, Investigative Services Division, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Unit, and Forensic Identification Unit involved.
